STUDENT ASSISTANCE POLICY AND THE POLITICAL-PEDAGOGICAL DIMENSION OF SOCIAL WORK IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE NORTHEAST REGION
Social Work; political-pedagogical dimension; student assistance; Northeast Region.
The work of social workers in education is firmly rooted in the tradition of social work and has gained significant notoriety with the inclusion of these professionals in student assistance policies. Based on this reality, the main objective of this dissertation is to identify the political-pedagogical dimension of Social Work in student assistance policy. This scope is achieved through the following specific objectives: to analyze the professional duties and competencies of social workers in student assistance policy; identifying, in the sample investigated, the occurrence of elements that relate the work of social workers in student assistance policy and educational praxis; and investigating the development of knowledge production in Social Work with regard to student assistance, particularly in the Northeast Region. To this end, knowledge production in the professional category is taken from postgraduate programs in Social Work at federal universities in the Northeast Region of Brazil and from articles on professional events, such as ENPESS and CBAS, in the period between 2016 and 2024. A qualitative bibliographic and documentary research is undertaken. The research is guided by historical-dialectical materialism and uses its categories as the main basis for interpreting the phenomena expressed in the textual productions. The IRaMuTeQ software emerges as an essential resource for identifying and synthesizing the situation apprehended. From the reading of the social reality emanating from the production of knowledge and the documents analyzed, it can be inferred that the political-pedagogical dimension is expressed as a strategic potential for overcoming the limits of everyday life and is based on: the necessary expansion of its relative autonomy; the uncompromising defense of freedom; the struggle for the rights to public, secular, and quality education; and the consolidation of human emancipation.