Perspectives of distance education in Brazil: quality references, re-readings and trajectories

Abstract

This text aims to discuss the educative practice focusing on the distance education. This modality of education is thought here on its specificities as a practice that has as one of its great challenges the physical distance between educators and learners, but that has a great potential on the formation of critical, creative and politically engaged subjects who are able to promote the social change. However, for this change to happen the subjects involved with the distance education (DE) must be imbued with the attempt of building this transformation through the education, and one of the ways to do that is to reflect continuously about their work as educators, both in presence and distance modality. We tried to think about the multiple facets of DE, proposing a reflection that covers aspects that we consider to be relevant to the subjects that deal with this modality. Moreover, the legislation that regulates DE, since it is a direction of the educational process; the problems that afflict itself; its expansion process in the present; the references of quality – as, for example, the technologies, the didactic material, the evaluation –; its education and formative potentialities, as well as the interpretations and readings done by those involved in the DE are discussed.

Key words: distance education, social transformation, critical society.