Gestão do Sistema Tutorial, à Luz do Imaginário do Tutor e do Aluno

Abstract

The distance Education system management must follow the paradigms of the contemporary times, valuing the subjectivity that considers the man as a multifaceted and controversial being. From this starting perception, the present study aimed at clarifying the imaginary of the relationship between on-line tutors and undergraduate distance learning students at a university in the south area of Brazil. This study is quantitative and qualitative and associated statistic analysis with the meaning research, conferring privilege on the researched topic comprehension and the gathered data interpretation. As a research tool, a questionnaire with open and closed questions was applied to the students and on-line tutors. The closed questions dealt with the online tutor assessment by the student and a tutorial practice self-assessment by participant tutors. The student’s imaginary, as well as the tutors´, were grasped through the analyses of the discourse produced during the free speech question about the tutorial practice. The data analysis was conducted through the quantitative and qualitative approach. The quantitative data was submitted to a specific statistic treatment to make it possible to identify frequency. The qualitative analysis was based on the discourse analysis and meaningful speech excerpts were categorized and considered. From the interpretative process, three categories emerged: The tutor as present being and mediator; dialogicity and interactivity; affection and the psychological proximity. The emerged categories were discussed based on the relevant literature, the observation and the researcher subjectivity. The results allowed an on-line tutor system management proposal delineation to be implemented in the researched institution. It is expected that the adoption of this imaginary based type of management comes to be the beginning of the insertion of novelty in the distance learning system management.