One Hundred Years of Solitude: Distance Education in Brazil – Negative Perceptions Before and After the Pandemic

• Autor(a) principal: Viana, Leonardo
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Campos, Milton N., Álvarez , Ibis M., Proba, Fabiane, Lo Bianco, Vittório
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: EAD em Foco
• Texto Completo: https://eademfoco.cecierj.edu.br/index.php/Revista/article/view/2188
• topic: EaD; Teoria das Ágoras; Educação a distância; Preconceito; Representações sociais; Percepção discente; Psicologia social; Distance education; Social representations; Agoras; Prejudice; Coronavirus pandemic

With the centenary of distance education (EAD) in Brazil, completed in 2023, the article presents an exploratory descriptive study comparing negative social representations about the teaching modality before and after the coronavirus pandemic (2019 and 2023). The objective is to reflect on the formation of an apparent prejudice in relation to EAD in the country - of historical, economic and sociocultural origin - based on this research in the psychosocial field, carried out with 1,000 candidates from the Vestibular Cederj – Distance Higher Education Center in the State of Rio de Janeiro, in those years. The work “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by García Márquez inspires an analogy about the “isolation” of EAD, due to the little recognition that seems to have marked its one hundred years of existence. The percentage of participants who presented negative perceptions related to EAD was practically unchanged in the pre- and post-pandemic periods (42% in 2019 and 43% in 2023). The data were collected using the word evocation technique inspired by Abric, through questions to the ego (self) and the alter (other). Supported by the theoretical-methodological approach of Ágoras from Viana, we analyzed the results with emphasis on the fact that negative evaluations stood out significantly in both years when those surveyed were asked from the alter and not the ego. The fact showed that the construction of the individual's thought, influenced by their condition of social being, is a preponderant factor in the formation of Agoras: groupings based on affinities of social representations.   Keywords: Distance education. Social representations. Prejudice. Coronavirus pandemic. Agoras.