Tutors' Activities in Distance Education: analyzing their educational roles

Tutors´ role in Distance Education is investigated by analyzing and identifying representations built on their work and expressed in their discourses in half-structured interviews (BULEA, 2010). The theoretical and methodological framework is based on Social-Discursive Interactionism (SDI) within its most didactic pathway (BRONCKART, 2003; 2005), Social Interactionism (SI) (BAKHTIN, 1993; 2003). Current paper comprises (a) a synthesis of theoretical and methodological guidelines on the theoretical framework of SDI and on the procedures of human action represented in texts for the construction of a broader perception on tutors´ educational work; (b) theoretical guidelines for a research interview to foreground the better use of such a tool; (c) tutors´ discourse. Data produced in a public university in the state of Paraná, Brazil, are given in the Methodology section. They comprise half-structured interviews with tutors of the Language & Literature Distance Education course. Results of tutors´ deposition evidence the relevance of the tutor in distance education modality in Brazil.  

THE CADERNO FOLHA CIDADES FROM FOLHA DE LONDRINA: THE PRODUCTION CONTEXT

ABSTRACT: This research is the outcome of the results obtained in the development of the research Project “Genres in the journalistic media as objects of external didactic transposition”, developed in Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná (UENP/CCP). It has as its study focus the journal genres and its usage as an object of school literacy. For this work we theoretically follow the studies developed by the Sociodiscursive Interactionism (ISD), which systematizes categories for the analysis of language practices materialized in texts and gives us epistemological feedback for the development of the research. Methodologically, the study has four steps: 1) bibliographic study of the journalistic sphere and newspaper genres; 2) interview with Folha de Londrina; 3) identification of the genres that compose the CFC; 4) Description of the CFC based in a category analysis of the ISD: the production context. The general objective is to present part of a theoretical model from the Caderno Folha Cidades of Folha de Londrina newspaper. The results show the importance of this Caderno as object of local literacy, because it is geared towards issues of the Londrina region and serves as a guide for the local population to inform themselves of events and happenings in the area. We aim to expose a contextual overview of the CFC in order to encourage research towards journalistic genres by a sociodiscursive bias.  KEYWORDS: Sociodiscursive interactionism. Newspaper genres. Theoretical models. Production context.