A formação acadêmico-profissional para inclusão social nos cursos superiores de turismo: dos aspectos socioeconômicos à discussão curricular

Abstract

This study aimed to ascertain the extent to which the curriculum of College Tourism Courses promotes a professional performance of the graduate related to social inclusion, seeking to state criteria for the construction of curriculum structures that may have the political dimension of their integration into society. The importance of this theme is related to the lack of epistemological discussions in this area of knowledge and the need to construct its tradition in college education. The research focused the study of curricula from a historical, political and sociological perspective, with no intention to reconcept them or to examine their application. It was performed a critical analysis of the curriculum construction and design process in the field of Tourism, with the premise of social inclusion and exclusion. As part of the strategies of qualitative research, the literature search pointed out as theoretical reference studies based on socioeconomic authors such as Gilberto Dupas (2001), Marcio Pochmann et al. (2005), Sergio Buarque de Holanda (1999), Maria Luisa Santos Ribeiro (1998) and José de Souza Martins (1997, 2002) that discuss social inclusion and exclusion concepts, which are central in this work. The relation of tourism to the historical and political formation of the country was assessed to verify whether it can be considered as a priority of economic alternatives to reducing the condition of social exclusion in large parts of the Brazilian regions. The discussion of Tourism as an area of knowledge was held, against the backdrop of the role of public and private College education and the issue of its professional quality formation, noting several problems the area struggles to strengthen up and present itself to society as an alternative towards social transformations. The starting point to understand the constitution of the Tourism curriculum, its design and debates of its recent history were the studies already made in theses and dissertations and, mainly, from conflicts and solutions discussed to state the National Curriculum Guidelines which motivated the current curriculum structures adopted by institutions of college education. The criteria used to select the Colleges for the effective analysis of their curriculum structures came up with the indication of ten Colleges from Sao Paulo State. The examination of their curriculum structures has enabled to go further in recurrent issues of pedagogical literature. To complete the scenario of analysis, there was the elaboration of an illustrative panel focusing the view of graduates and the responses of students to open questions of Tourism of ENADE/2006, looking for insertion evidence of concepts in their formation such as social inclusion, ethics, social responsibility, participation in communities, noting that there is a lack of understanding of students and graduates regarding this topic. The study on the socioeconomic conditions of the country related to the curricula discussions of some Tourism degree courses from the State of São Paulo has allowed the indication of three foundations to build a curriculum structure not limited to the field of neutrality, productivity and competitiveness: the concept of social quality as a benchmark for what is expected of the role of teachers, students, educational leaders and communities about the experience of Tourism; an identity as a premise to build tradition of College Courses; and social function of the courses considered part of a national project of social inclusion based in values such as ethics, tolerance, solidarity, social equality and democratization of relations in education