Pedagogia das competências: um estudo de inspiração genealógica sobre a emergência da noção de competências na área da Educação

Abstract

The predominance of the neoliberal paradigm in various spheres of social life generates, as one of its main consequences, a shift in the objectives of educational processes toward the development of competencies. This thesis raises reflections on how the notion of competencies emerges in Education, based on borrowings and transpositions from other fields, through a process of excavation, involving the survey of documents, authors, and relevant works. In this process, the relations of knowledge and power are questioned to understand how this concept was historically constituted in Education, through documentary research of genealogical inspiration, in which documents are regarded as monuments. The research objectives were: (1) to construct the historicity of the concept of competencies, attributing meanings to it from different fields of knowledge; and (2) to understand the historical context from which the concept of competencies emerges in Education, which has become a central issue in educational discussions. The theoretical framework was developed to explore, how these ideas may result of the spread and development of Human Capital Theory and the culture of entrepreneurship in Education – a hypothesis ultimately confirmed by analysis. The first approach involved direct research into documents connected to the topic, as well as authors and works with great convergence and contribution to this thesis. The second approach involved analyzing other documents identified from the initial documents surveyed. These two approaches serve as gateways to the composition of the empirical corpus. In this excavation process, the Delors Report (1996) serves as a starting point, since understanding the establishment of the competency logic requires examining the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, when Human Capital Theory emerged and developed. The plot was developed from four time frames: the 1950s and 1960s, in which the developments of the Theory of Human Capital and the Learning Society in Education are analyzed, seeking the formation of a certain type of subject for a certain type of society; the 1970s, with “Aprender a ser” Report (1972), the movement to overcome intelligence and aptitude tests proposed, the evaluation of competence by McClelland (1973), and, also, the discussions on overcoming the profession model and the job model; the 1980s, with the end of the economic crisis; the 1990s, marked by the importance of Delors (1996) and the centrality of competence in education, with a focus on the formation of human capital becoming essential. It is interesting to note that, since the Career Guidance Theory movement, which criticizes the pseudoscientific use of the notion of aptitude, the “Aprender a ser” Report, and the studies conducted by McClelland (1973) a notion of competencies has been emerging, one that ultimately redefines the relationship with knowledge — that is, with content itself.