A pesquisa sobre educação de jovens e adultos : temas e contribuições de teses brasileiras sobre alfabetização e letramento (1987-2012)

Abstract

This investigation focuses on Adult Education (called Young and Adult People Education – EJA in Brazil) seen as an areas of social and educational impact. By analyzing its importance against the worrying situation of illiterate people in Brazil, the study aims at cooperating with the possibility to change this situation, since we believe in the importance of research developed in the Post-graduation programs as an element that enables discussions and actions related to the teaching activity such as the creation and execution of public policies. Thus some exploratory research was developed, characterized by metaresearch, to identify Master’s dissertations and Doctoral theses produced between 1987 and 2012 which reported findings regarding young and adult people education. The methodological procedures were based on the search for research with the descriptor "young and adult people education" in the Capes thesis database, and after the titles, keywords and abstracts were read, data was grouped by categories of topics investigated. This classification revealed that mother tongue teaching was one of the themes that presented the highest number in the search. Based on the data, the study prioritized understanding the knowledge produced in the area, enabling the identification and analysis of contributions provided by the Doctoral theses. The results led to some considerations such as: the importance of specific teacher training in this area, the relevance of knowing the EJA subjects and the need to expand post-graduation programs and investment (personal and financial) in this research area. Young and adult people education should be understood as a right rather than a mission or a favor, a social justice process.