INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: from conceptualization to its development

Abstract

Distance Learning (DL), since its regulation, has been offered as a modality of education that implies a variety of conceptions, often confused with remote education, open education, eLearning, and flexible education, among others, especially nowadays. In this context, this article differentiates these concepts, and then presents reflections that allow an understanding of how DL has developed in the Brazilian educational and political scenarios. To this end, it presents the evolution of DL and the impacts of the federal government's funding programs with emphasis on the Open University of Brazil (UAB) and the e-Tec Brazil Network, the main national efforts towards public DL since 2006, which, despite funding the offer of higher education and technical courses, have their roots in the interests of neoliberal capitalism. The reason is that, as pointed out in the paper, these programs contribute to the precariousness of the modality and, consequently, to the increase of bias that DL has been suffering in the country. As a result, there are visible negative impacts of this dynamic on the institutionalization processes of DL, which are vital for the development of a strong, consolidated, and with socially referenced quality Distance Learning.