Abandono escolar nos cursos técnicos integrados de nível médio: o caso do Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina no Campus de Xanxerê.

Abstract

This research investigated the phenomenon of dropout in the Integrated High School Technical Courses at the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC) Xanxerê Campus - SC. The study was carried out within the framework of the Research Line Society, Knowledge and Education of the Postgraduate Program in Education, Master's Level, of the State University of Western Paraná, and its objective was to analyse the dropout phenomenon in the Integrated High School Technical Courses of the IFSC Xanxerê Campus - SC. Thus, the historical process of vocational and technical education, the public education policies, as well as the policies of permanence and success of the IFSC, constitute important elements for this research, which was based on the theorists of historical-dialectical materialism, such as Marx (1977, 1978, 1998), Marx and Engels (1983), Saviani (1982, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011), Frigotto, Ramos, Ciavatta (2005, 2010), Kuenzer (2000, 2005, 2015), Fritsch (2017, 2018), among others. The research had a qualitative approach and was configured as a case study, using documentary analysis as a methodology, focusing on the analysis of IFSC's guiding documents, such as the Institutional Development Plan, the Permanence and Success Plan and others, and the Xanxerê - SC Campus, the Pedagogical Project for Integrated Technical Courses and the questionnaires answered by students who dropped out of the courses (Diagnostic Meeting Questionnaire). This last document was provided by the pedagogical coordinator of the campus and was an important tool for the analysis of the empirical data in this research. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with the staff of the IFSC Xanxerê - SC Campus, with the research subjects being staff in management positions directly linked to teaching activities, teachers and technical administrative staff. This action was carried out to understand how they perceived the reasons for dropping out of school and which factors were the most common determinants of this phenomenon. In addition, we sought to understand how the Xanxerê - SC Campus and the IFSC work with policies and actions aimed at mitigating dropout in the institution. The results of the interviews showed that the main factors for dropping out are the incompatibility of class and work schedules, learning difficulties, socio-economic issues and lack of identification with the course area. Some of the measures taken by the Xanxerê - SC Campus to reduce dropout were identified, such as the provision of tutoring, food through the school feeding programme, the availability of teachers' hours for out-of-class supervision and a multidisciplinary pedagogical team. At the institutional level, there is the management of resources for student support policies and the promotion of joint actions with the other campuses. Based on the results, it can be concluded that early school leaving has a multifactorial character, which can be mitigated by institutional actions; however, the historical-social factors have a force beyond the institutional scope and go beyond the limits of education, being a structural problem