Lecture Description
A moment to think about and
discuss the amount of academic knowledge we bring into our lives and the way
subjects negotiate what they have learned to do in the academy with the
everyday practices in work places. A question that would guide the talk is
whether a certain knowledge should or not be valued more than the other.
A little history...
At first, to become a professional
one had to work for some time in the area to learn by practicing. For instance,
a ship building leader in the middle age would be someone who had already
worked building ships by helping another ship builder.
In colonial Brazil, a barber would
perform any kind of surgery. To receive a medicine diploma he would have to go
through an exam: he had to operate someone in front of a judge. If the person
survived he was approved, otherwise he could try again later.
It has been a short time in human
history since we started asking for a college degree from someone who applied
for a job.
Because of
the modern science rise, specialism to perform different activities started to
be valued and a graduation to be asked for.
Another example is that although
the first engineer known by name and achievement was Imhotep, designer of the
stepped pyramid at Saqqara near Memphis, circa 2550 BC, the first engineering
school in the world, The Corps des Ponts et Chaussees, was opened in 1747 in
France.
For some time to be a professional
you could either learn by working or going to college. Until very recently we
had “practical dentists” in Brazil. Then unions started to be organized and
graduation diplomas became compulsory for some professionals.
Colleges are now considered the
locus for academic knowledge development. In many courses theory has become so
philosophical that some students feel that what they learn in classes has no
relation to everyday work. Recently, in an attempt to change the way colleges
have organized knowledge some universities are adopting strategies to bring
close together work and education, such as:
o
Apprenticeship
o
Internships
o
Sandwich
courses
o
Applied
MSc
o
Special
Purpose Awards
To read and think of:
GOMES, Laurentino. 1808.
São Paulo: Ed. Planeta,
2007.
MURPHY,
Anne. The
interface between academic knowledge and working knowledge: implications for
curriculum design, pedagogies and assessment. Dublin: DIT, 2008.
SANTOS, Boaventura de
Sousa. Renovar a Teoria Crítica e Reinventar a Emancipação Social. São
Paulo: Boitempo, 2007.
SAVIANI, Demerval. História
das idéias pedagógicas no Brasil. Campinas: Autores Associados, 2007.
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