A concepção de trabalho acadêmico de alunas de um curso de pedagogia a distância: um estudo de caso

Abstract

By taking as a case study a distance-learning course from a university in the hinterland of Brazilian Northeast, this dissertation aims to understand the notions of ‘academic work’ and plagiarism (GALLO, 2004, ABRANCHES, 2008; SILVA, 2008; CELANI, 2005). In order to do so, I selected three undergraduate monographs to be studied according to Bronckart’s theory (2007) – an approach that takes into consideration analyzes of textual genres as well as the texts’ internal structure and context. Such a perspective allowed me to associate the students’ socio-cultural context to the problems in their works, i.e., it pointed out their literacy difficulties (KLEIMAN, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2015), which led to copy, and therefore to plagiarism. It is noticeable that those students’ author-identities (FOUCAULT, 1991, 2002; SILVA, 2008) are not present in the works. Instead, their writing shows some idea of the rules of academic work: mostly that one needs to rely on specialists’ knowledge authority. Thus, instead of using scholarly knowledge to support their own ideas, those undergraduate students just reproduce scholars’ statements. I believe that such phenomenon relates to low self-esteem that creates fragile identities (HALL, 2011; LOPES e FABRÍCIO, 2002; RAJAGOPALAN, 2003). For those students do not believe that their own voices are capable of being heard. From this standing-point, I also intend to discuss the university’s role in the development of student’s academic literacy (LEA & STREET, 2014; STREET, 2013; ZAVALA 2010; OLIVEIRA, 2009, 2014; BRANDÃO 2013). I argue that the mastering of academic writing should not be taken for granted. On the contrary, the literary genre of ‘undergraduate monograph’ must be introduced and developed together with the students from their first academic year onwards. As a matter of fact, an undergraduate that has never been in contact with academic writing, and also comes from underprivileged background, will have much more difficulty to engage in academic writing and might also consider plagiarism as a valid resource.