Mães à obra e os muros da universidade: histórias e reflexões sobre educação popular e ensino na engenharia

Abstract

During nine months of 2022, in a space provided by the Social Assistance Reference Center (CRAS) in Morro do Preventório, located in the city of Niterói, it was possible to find a group of women on Tuesdays learning how to build houses. The project, called Mães à Obra (Mothers at Work), aimed to train mothers from the community to work in construction — whether in their own renovations or in those of third parties. Advised by the Urbelatam extension project, teachers Adriana and Rose, also residents of Preventório, taught the course, which held weekly community meetings, filled with Popular Education practices. On the lookout, I was there, as an observer and advisor, in order to guarantee support to teachers who had never taught before. Little by little, the course aroused my interest when I realized that Mães à Obra contained, in its formula, elements that were missing from the experience in the classrooms of the Technology Center of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where I graduated as an engineer. Thus, the project became one of the central elements of my dissertation. It offers learning practices that, as per the hypothesis of this work, accommodate the absences felt by engineering students during their time at university. They are evidenced by the research I carried out during 2015, when I was still Director of Teaching at the Academic Center for Engineering at UFRJ (CAEng). Among the shortcomings that students reported, such as the lack of practical engineering experiences, assessments consistent with the material given in the classroom, listening to the teaching staff and concern about student teaching, Mães à Obra proved to be a valuable experience to the problems encountered in higher education. Through Oscar Jara Holliday's experience systematization methodology, the objective of this work is to understand what a community and popular course can teach universities, especially engineering schools. Based on dialogues with authors who discuss the topic, such as Paulo Freire and bell hooks, I reflect on the learning in the classroom and it is at the crossroads that I point out the potential of this research. Building empowerment among students, care and a sense of community, and inviting teachers to be vulnerable are some of the elements that stand out as important for building a thriving classroom.