Trabalho de Investigação sobre a evasão nos cursos de inglês da UFRGS

Abstract

Trata-se de um estudo inicial voltado para a compreenso do conjunto de motivos pelos quais, a partir de 2005, os ‰ndices de evaso dos alunos do Ingl„s come‚aram a aumentar no Instituto de Letras da UFRGS. O propŠsito inicial era a realiza‚o de um trabalho de pesquisa quantitativo e estat‰stico sobre as poss‰veis causas desta evaso. Todavia, na medida em que, a investiga‚o progredia, come‚ou a ficar aparente uma conflu„ncia de fatores diversos, em que cada um interferia nos demais dificultando a medida dos ‰ndices verificados nos estudos preliminares sobre o assunto, de forma que a sobreposi‚o de dados come‚ou a prejudicar a visualiza‚o dos fen‹menos ocorridos. Assim, minha orientadora e eu optamos por uma estrutura de trabalho que fosse ao mesmo tempo descritiva e argumentativa, para que cada uma das linhas apresentadas pudesse ser posteriormente investigada, em poss‰veis trabalhos subsequentes, de maneira exclusiva e mais aprofundada. Meu interesse por pesquisar este tema surgiu € medida que tive minha experi„ncia como discente do Setor de Ingl„s, e se intensificou quando passei a integrar a equipe do PAG2 Ingl„s. Constatei, ento que o Setor de Ingl„s estava com o corpo docente to sobrecarregado, dando conta de outras tarefas, que no conseguiu montar uma equipe de trabalho PAG1 para pesquisar este fen‹meno. Assim, me voluntariei para faz„-lo, atrav s deste TCC. Os dados utilizados foram obtidos atrav s de tr„s fontes principais, (1) entrevistas feitas atrav s de rede social com alunos evadidos e quase evadidos do Ingl„s, (2) consulta a dados disponibilizados pelo Departamento de L‰nguas Modernas e pela (3) Comisso de Gradua‚o de Letras. e anŒlise do processo de implanta‚o e dos primeiros resultados obtidos pelo PAG2. Ao final da investiga‚o, os ind‰cios parecem apontar para uma poss‰vel sequ„ncia de procedimentos acad„micos e administrativos que, influenciados por modifica‚es e redirecionamentos nas pol‰ticas educacionais implantadas pelos Žltimos tr„s governos, acabou por abalar profundamente os corpos docente e discente do Setor de Ingl„s da UFRGS, desestruturando certas prŒticas e provocando um dos ‰ndices mais altos de evaso ocorridos na histŠria da UFRGS. Espero que os fatos aqui identificados possam, com o tempo, vir a ser estudados de forma mais consistente.

This work consists of an analysis of the circumstances why, from 2005 onwards, a progressively wider number of students abandoned the English Course, which forms teachers and translators at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The aim of this study is to reach an understanding of the situation so that, in due time, solutions may be found and the problem solved. The original course of procedures was devised as a quantitative research, based on statistics and data analysis. The further this was carried on, the more the results proved to be elusive. This happened because of the realisation that, along the years from 2005 to 2011, different policies were imposed, which altered the course and the results of different attempts which were already in course and beginning to hold the progression of the evasion rates. My adviser and I, therefore, thought it better to alter the structure of this work to a descriptive and argumentative essay where as many aspects of the phenomenon could be reflected as possible, so that, in the future, each of them may be undertaken and analysed in a deeper and more exclusive way. My interest on the theme comes both from my experience as a student of English at UFRGS and from the realisation, as I joined PAG2 (the Rectory program meant to fight evasion), that the professors from the English Sector were so overloaded with work that they could not join PAG1 (the Rectory program meant to search the causes of evasion). So, I volunteered to investigate those matters, as I could, and chose the theme of student’s evasion as the focus of my Undergraduate Monograph (TCC). The data collected comes from three major sources, interviews carried through the social network with students who evaded or almost evaded the course; analysis of data and registers held at the English Sector(LET 2) and the Students Division (COMGRAD); and the things I learned through my contact with the Rectory program meant to fight evasion (PAG2). At the end of this investigation, my understanding is that, from 2005 to 2011, a number of solutions have been tried to revert the process of evasion, which have been successful to a certain level. But while each of them was being carried out, new changes in educational policies and new factors interfered, changing the operational mechanisms of the course, which discontinued the processes. This provoked a crisis which deeply affected the operations of the English Sector and its body of professors, causing the evasion rates to remain so high. I hope that, in due time, this first tentative work may be developed through a number of further, and more extensive, investigations.