A formação do administrador e a construção de sua identidade: um estudo de caso na Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

Brazil’s National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional, LDB) outlines the basic principles that should guide higher education, specifying as its purposes the promotion of cultural education, the encouragement of reflection, and the development of the scientific mind. However, every course has its own National Curriculum Guidelines (Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais, DCNs). Besides, every higher education institution is allowed to formulate an Educational Project Course (Projeto Pedagógico de Curso, PPC) for each one of its courses. In theory, the LDB and the courses’ NCDs and PPCs are supposed to be similar in order to build a curriculum and provide academic training consistent with the outlined precepts. Undergraduate education is a—non-compulsory—part of both vocational training and professional identity. By definition, identity involves self-concepts, self-definitions, as well as attributions of the self by others (DUBAR, 2005). Thus, this research aims to analyse this “stage,” so to speak, of the Business Management professional’s identity construction in Brazil. The general goal of this work is to understand the role played by universities in the identity construction of Business Management professionals from the perspective of course undergraduates and teachers. It is predominantly qualitative research, characterised as a case study, which uses questionnaires and interviews as data collection methods. Regarding data analysis, we used tabulation on SPSS software for questionnaires and applied the content analysis methodology for interviews. Among the results, it should be noted that the current regulation encourages a predominantly market-oriented, corporate-centred identity for Business Management professionals. Students still mainly share the leading, market-oriented view, in line with what is prescribed by the DCNs and, to a large extent, by the PPC itself. Among teachers, there is an apparent conflict of rationales, values and world views regarding the content that should be taught in Business Management courses. We have perceived some similarities between what institutions claim to make up the Business Management professional identity and what teachers and students themselves have stated, such as the predominant view.