The role of UNIREDE on public policy construction for distance education in Brazil

Abstract

The initial public policy for distance education in the country, made with “ProLicenciatura”, was built on a dialogue with representatives from partner institutions, through mediation of UNIREDE. The Pro-Licenciatura was the first experience of the federal government to start the implementation of distance graduation programs in public universities. In a time when we discuss distance education institutionalization in universities, the rescue of historical negotiation and discussion to the creation and expansion of distance learning courses can be an important differential for us to think in diversified and contextualized proposals for distance learning in universities. This article proposes to examine the role of UNIREDE on building a public policy for distance education in the country that privileged dialogue and cooperation between representatives of higher education institutions, specifically the period of construction of a public policy for distance education in the country. The methodological approach is based on documental research, since the central question of the study is related to a specific policy with the theoretical scope in the field of cultural studies which enables to use different media and discuss whether or not it can be used as a legitimate expression of thought of a particular group. The results of our survey indicates that UNIREDE had a key role in the dialogue of the construction of public policies in distance education, including the creation of proposals and selection criteria of the Higher Education Institutes (IES), coordinating groups and minimizing the unequal power relations between various groups that participated in the process.