OPEN UNIVERSITY OF BRAZIL (UAB)

(re)shaping teacher education territory

Abstract

Open University of Brazil (UAB): (re)shaping teacher education territory This work problematizes the relationship between the politics of the Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB – Open University of Brazil) and the government of teachers’ conducts, by means of Distance Education. Operating with Michel Foucault’s notions of discourse and governmentality, the discoursive strategies of a number of official statements and documents are examined (legislation, speeches, interviews and other statements made by government officials at events or websites of the Ministry of Education on Internet), as well as their effects on teachers and teacher education. It is argued that UAB has been establishing a new geometry for teacher education and teachers’ work, with its promises of modernizing teacher education; of carrying higher education to small towns in the hinterland; of democratizing the acess to higher education; of offering in-service education and social and digital inclusion. It is emphasized that UAB is implicated in the making of a flexible, active and self-governed subject, as well as in the flexibilization of university structure and labor relations.