Reflexões acerca da origem, da trajetória e da identidade do curso de comércio no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

In the context of educational professionalization of the twentieth century, commercial education in Brazil has taken a turn towards the perspective of modernization of legislation related to this teaching mode, with Decree No. 1,339 of January 9, 1905 as the main milestone. Accordingly, in an attempt to meet the demand for professional training for new jobs that have emerged with the economic growth of the state, the Technical Course in Commerce of Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio grande do Norte emerged in 2008 at Campus Natal - Zona Norte in the area of Management and Business. However, despite the good structuring and presentation of the course, evidenced in its Pedagogical Project, there are reports which indicate that the program is not understood by society, by the job market and not even by the academic community. Thus, this research carries such problem as the motivator of the present study. Therefore, from this scenario, and aiming to contribute to professional education in Rio Grande do Norte, this dissertation proposes, through the search for the identity of the student of the Technical Course in Commerce of IFRN Campus Natal - Zona Norte, the construction of an identity of the course, culminating in the conception of an educational product that highlights the origin, trajectory and importance of the professional trained in that area. To this end, as a methodological apparatus, initial questionnaires were applied on its history, training, professional education and commercial education with students from the 1st and 4th grades of the Technical Course in Commerce at IFRN. In addition, documents such as commercial education legislation in Brazil and Portugal, laws and decrees, were cross-referenced with the theoretical framework, allowing the analysis and evaluation of the repercussions of this work in view of the hypotheses raised. The results of this research focus on the lack of knowledge of the history of the course by the students and the devaluation of the profession, since there is no social identity that promotes its professionals economically, socially and commercially, which will seek to be mitigated from the use of the educational product, the result of this research, as an instrument to be worked on in the campus History classes.