O trabalho da(o) assistente social no Programa de Assistência Estudantil do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Paraná (IFPR): um estudo

Abstract

The present study has as its theme the labour of the social worker in the Student Assistance Program of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraná (IFPR). As a general objective, we seek to analyze the contribution of the Student Assistance Program from the performance of the Social Service for the retention of students in the undergraduate program of IFPR. Therefore, we make some considerations about the category labour and the "social question" in the capitalist mode of production, bringing the debate of work and education as founding categories of the social being. We carry out a brief historical literature review of Social Work in Brazil and education policy, as well as the trajectory of education policy in Brazil. The method used is based on historical-dialectical materialism. This is an exploratory research with a qualitative approach. The methodology used was bibliographic, documentary and field research. The research participants were six social workers who work in the Student Assistance Program on IFPR campuses and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire. We organised the research in three axes of analysis: conception of education and the particularity of Social Work in education policy; the labour of the social worker and the Student Assistance Program: demands, requests and assignments; school dropout and retention strategies: contributions of the labour of the social worker. The result of the research indicates a conception of education aligned with the ethical–political project of Social Work, whose horizon is human emancipation. Regarding the labour of social workers in the Student Assistance Program, the study reveals that the main demand is related to the process involving disclosure, guidance, socioeconomic analysis for granting aid/scholarships and monitoring of students. It was verified that the insufficiency of human resources, together with the incorporation of administrative and bureaucratic activities in the daily routine of professional work, tend to boost responses to immediate demands limiting the possibility of planning and developing other actions that can expand the educational dimension of professional work. Finally, we consider that from the reflections carried out, the study indicates that the labour of the social worker is intrinsically linked to avoiding dropout rates, since professional work permeates the dimension of access and permanence. The actions developed by the professionals have an important role in the sense of reception and social care, to know the social reality of students and their families so it is possible to seek and enable responses to social needs and access to different social policies.