DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE OF PEDAGOGY: PREDICAMENTS IN THE COURSE PROPOSITION AS AN INITIAL GRADUATION

This paper discusses the results of a longitudinal case study designed to construct a profile of distance undergraduate students and to analyze their opinions and insights concerning their study of pedagogy at a private university, in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The article discusses the legitimacy of undergraduate distance teacher education courses and students' feelings of discrimination and insecurity about the validity of such courses. Questionnaires were distributed to 325 students of the six grades in 27 different distance learning centers located in various cities of the state of Sao Paulo and around Brazil. Based on the data supplied by the 238 students who responded to the questionnaire, the profile of the respondents was as follows: 25-35 years old, married, low-salaried, parents of low formal education attainment, connected to the Internet and employed in education-related jobs. The data also showed that those who worked in education-related jobs preferred to enroll in a pedagogy course as continuing education. Although students were generally satisfied with the course, they also reported negative treatment of non-acceptance and discrimination, usually from their relatives and friends, revealing that this type of teacher education course probably still enjoys lower prestige that residential teacher education.