![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Among the most recent diversification policies in Brazil one should pay special attention to so called “Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology”, based upon an older institution of professional education, in 2008. In fact, this new establishment was inserted into a policy vision that proposed a “Federal Network of Professional and Technological Education”. Among the most outstanding diversification policies one can point out the fact that the transformation of the prior existing type (“Federal Center of Technological Education”) did not create a big number of new institutions, but indeed largely expanded the number of campuses allowing for a spatial decentralization and therefore providing opportunity to a population that lacked access to public higher education, which in Brazil does not charge tuition or fees. Furthermore it introduced a quota-system that reserves at least 50% of all places offered at this institution to pupils that attended public schools, aiming to democratize access to tertiary education, since these Institutes offer higher education as technological and teacher formation degrees.
The present work draws on and goes beyond other investigations priorly developed by myself to point out how indeed one can observe a certain degree of democratization, but tries to indicate barriers that persist in spite of this quota-system and further actions to be detailed during the presentation. The most important issue I would like to focus on concerns the clash between stated objectives in this aforementioned establishment and the effective existing conditions, starting from a qualitative study-case at the institute I currently work at and also elaborating on the contrasting mentalities of the older professors facing a new generation with a completely different academic background, that bring along divergent views of formative itineraries as well as concerning the scope of the diplomas offered at the institutes vis-à-vis universities.