Social Work’s education: particularities in the south region of Brazil

Abstract

The article shares some results of the author’s PhD research project which was concluded in the beginning of 2006 and discusses the impacts of the present configuration of Brazilian universities on social work training. Its research sources were the testimonies given by managers, professors and students of social service at colleges and universities in southern Brazil. The data gathered and its analysis confirm the hypothesis that the model of operational management adopted by the agency that manages higher education in Brazil has strongly impacted the training in social work both in the work process of managers and professors and the teaching of the profession. The research project’s assumption was that the change in the model of university management in Brazil was determined by the crisis experienced by the capitalist institutions, which underwent, in the ‘90s, a reordering in order to achieve a competitive and strategic position in society. Like these institutions, the universities were also affected by this reordering according to the restructuring of production and the neo-liberal model of social regulation. They begin to be managed just like business organizations (Chauí, 2001). This reality is also present in the area of social work. In southern Brazil, which is the focus of this paper, there were significant impacts on the projects of professional training. These projects, taken as a whole and as a process, point to the difficulties in implementing the training project predominant in this area and in guaranteeing the quality of that training vis-à-vis what may be called the crisis in the universities.

Key words – Higher education. Training. Social work.