Marketing performance measurement : overview of approaches and practices for high technology firms

Um levantamento de 320 executivos de marketing feito pelo Conselho CMO e divulgado em junho de 2004 indicou que poucas companhias de alta tecnologia (menos de 20% das empresas entrevistadas) têm desenvolvido medidas e métricas úteis e expressivas para as suas organizações de marketing. Porém a pesquisa também revelou que companhias que estabeleceram medidas formais e compreensivas atingiram resultados financeiros superiores e tiveram mais confiança do CEO na função de marketing. Esta dissertação provê uma visão geral da informação precisa para executivos de marketing entenderem e implementarem processos para medição de performance de marketing (MPM) em suas organizações. Ela levanta questões para gerentes de marketing na industria de alta tecnologia com respeito às demandas para maior responsabilidade final, valor de medição para o melhoramento dos processos de marketing, iniciativas para determinar a lucratividade dos investimentos em marketing, e a importância das atividades de marketing nos relatórios corporativos. Esta dissertação defende a implementação de MPM, mapeando seus benefícios de medição para ambos gerentes de marketing e as suas empresas. o trabalho logo explora alguns conceitos gerais de medição de marketing e investiga algumas abordagens a MPM propostas pela industria, pela comunidade acadêmica, e pelos analistas. Finalmente, a dissertação descreve algumas práticas que todo gerente de marketing na industria de alta tecnologia deve considerar quando adotando MPM. As sugestões são gerais, mas devem familiarizar o leitor com as informações precisas para habilitar processos e rigor na sua organização com respeito a MPM.

A formação do professor alfabetizador em cursos de Pedagogia: contribuições e lacunas teórico-práticas

To the we assume the disciplines of the area of Literacy of the course of Pedagogy, our intention has been the one of working the literacy, the reading and the writing as alive processes, as social practices inserted in the history, continuators of the subjectivity, done in the culture and producing of culture. The importance of the course of Pedagogy in the teachers' formation is unquestionable; however our goal is to highlight, in this work, the paper of that course in the formation of the teacher alphabetized, while mediator of the literacy process with an inclusive vision. In that to walk, it appeared us the following subject: which the contributions and the gaps theoretical-practices - of degree courses in Pedagogy - experienced for the exits of that course, in the specific pedagogic work of alphabetizing children, young adult and/or our study aims at to investigate, under the perspective of teachers alphabetizer licensed in courses of Pedagogy, the contributions and the theoretical-practical gaps of those courses, in the formation of the educator alphabetizer. In this sense, our work if it bases on the presuppositions of the qualitative investigation that leaves of the foundation that there is a dynamic relationship among the real and subjective world, an alive interdependence between subject and object, an entail indissoluble between the objective world and the subjective (CHIZZOTTI, 1998, p.79). The research is characterized as a descriptive and interpretative study and for the collection of data; the questionnaire, the semi-structured interview and the documental analysis were used. We took the following providences for the choice of Locus and of the subject of the research: it visits to the schools; compatibility of the criteria previously defined for choice of Locus and of the Subjects. For the choice of those schools, we defined the following criteria: that, in your individuality / totality, they were located in integral neighborhoods of, at least three of the four administrative areas of the city of Natal; that, in your individuality / totality, they contemplated the public spheres and private of attendance; that, in the year of accomplishment of the research - 2004 - they were offering infantile education and/or fundamental teaching; this last one gone back to the children of the initial years and/or for the youth and adult of the first levels of the modality of EJA; and that made possible the researcher's access. Front to the particularities of our study object and considering the criteria of choice of the locus, four public schools and three private schools were selected. Like this being, in those schools, we would look for the subject of our work that they would owe: 1) to be working, in 2004, with children's literacy, youths or adults: they as teacher (the), it as coordinator (the) that guides teachers alphabetizer, in public schools or peculiar of the city of the Natal-RN; 2) to be exit (the) of the degree course in Pedagogy, supplied by institutions of superior level (public or matters) of the city of the Natal-RN; 3) to have concluded your course of Pedagogy in the period of 1990-2004; 4) to have, at least, 01(one) year of experience in literacy rooms (TARDIF, 2002). The subjects interviewees concluded your courses of Pedagogy, in the period from 1990 to 2004, in institutions different from the city of Natal/RN, being five to the whole: two public IES and three deprived IES. Of the analysis of the data, the theme emerged, ' teacher's Alphabetizer Educational Formation in Courses of Pedagogy', with the following categories: contributions of the courses of Pedagogy; More important disciplines in the educational formation; Areas / Aspects lacunars of the courses of Pedagogy. The pedagogic practice of the teacher alphabetizer demands a formation from him found in you know educational, requested in the children's literacy, youths and adults. In that work, we defended the thesis that the course of Pedagogy is the locus, par excellence, for that formation, in spite of possible structural limitations and curricular of the referred course. In spite of the countless contributions of the pedagogy course for the formation of the teacher alphabetizer, our data appear for the need of a revision of the proposals curricular of that course, getting the attention for the importance of a proposal formation curricular more gone back to the literacy process / literate and for the social inclusion. We thought that, although insufficient, the teacher's formation in that perspective is a fundamental condition for a practice pedagogic alphabetizer to be promoted, in fact, inclusive and promoter of the school success

Ensinar/Aprender ortografia: uma experiência na formação de professores

The studies in the education area have been defending the importance of forming autonomous teachers that they look for to understand the context in that they act, for that movement to make possible educational interventions with better conditions of the students' learning. In the extent of the teachers' formation, it has been discussed the importance of formative actions that they have as focus the analysis of the needs in the educational formation, as alternative to turn such more significant actions. Concerned with those subjects and with the school failure in the Brazilian education, especially in the children's of the public school literacy, we accomplished this work that aims at to investigate the needs of teachers' of the Fundamental Teaching of the public school formation, in the extent of their students' orthographic difficulties, building with those teachers knowledge on the process of teaching/learning spelling. The study was accomplished at a municipal school of the city of Parnamirim-RN, that offers the Fundamental Teaching I. the approach investigativa is of qualitative nature, where the case study and the research-action were used as methodologies. They participated in the research 7 teachers and 1 coordinator of the institution. For the construction of the data the following instruments were used: glimpsed semi-directing collective and individual, documental analysis, questionnaire and observation, that made possible the triangulation of the data for the content analysis. The main results pointed that the teachers' of that school initial needs were addressed not only to the teaching of the spelling, but also to the formation type that they would receive. We verified although the formative process was favorecedor of sockets of the teachers' conscience: related to the orthographic mistakes, to the strategies used at classroom and to the planning addressed to the teaching of the spelling. Finally, we concluded that the teachers' reflection researched about their own formation needs contributed for (trans)formations of their conceptions and practices related to the teaching of the spelling, even before some found difficulties, so much in the formation as in practice pedagogic developed by the participants

Registro da atuação do movimento dos atingidos por barragens nos reassentamentos de Acauã: a alfabetização de jovens e adultos

This work contains the problematic of sub-education among the population that was excluded from school attendance in the regular time, contributing to knowledge production about educational practices developed in EJA (the Young and Adult Education). It focuses on the Pedagogical proposal and on the experience in young and adult literacy in the context of the mobilization of people affected by dam building. It depicts the international, national and regional mobilization against huge dams building and the emergence of the Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB), highlighting their general project and registering their teaching performance, particularly in young and adult literacy. In methodological and theoretical approaches, two interconnected categories are considered: the historical entirety, essentially theoretical, and the young and adult education practice. Based on the entirety, it outlines a contextualized explanation about the stakeholder s situation and, respecting the second category, which is part of the first one, places literacy as one of the basic aspects of an omnilateral man upbringing. The study broaches a wide context of dams in the world, placing the socio-environmental effects resulting from dams building in Brazil, in Northeast region and in Paraíba, and emphasizing the consequences of Acauã Dam building in the Paraíba cities of Aroeiras, Itatuba and Natuba. It presents the particular context of the population affected by Acauã, summarizing a panoramic view about the involved Paraíba cities and learning the conditions of residents relocation. It appraises the educational project and the National-MAB literacy proposal, operationalized by Paraíba-MAB in resettlements sited on Acauã s surroundings. It ensures that, besides public policies including financing, the feasibility of literacy problem solution can be completed with Pedagogical actions attached to the target people peculiarities and immediate necessities, respecting actions connected through one comprehensive and contextualized educational project. It evaluates the young and adult literacy project developed in the restricted Paraíba-MAB area, as an example of a Pedagogical action minimally contextualized. Eventually, it recommends researchers and teachers in general, that are committed to this work perspective, to pay attention to the way they articulate discussions and participation, so as to contemplate these communities expectations and necessities in Pedagogical projects and spaces based on discussion, dialogue and collective reflection

Alfabetizar letrando: investigação-ação fundada nas necessidades de formação docente

The accomplished researches in the education field focus on the importance of the accomplishment of actions involved in the analysis of the needs to graduate teachers as a way to adequate to socialcultural changing that require more and more a creative activity to prepare teachers in their graduation perspective. The worry with a fail at school linked to public school students lead us to make this thesis which goals are: investigate the needs of the graduation of teachers at public Elementary Schools concerning to the subjacent knowledge to the development of a pedagogic practice of alphabetizing with literacy and (re)create, with some teachers as active participants in the researches, knowledge regarding the process of alphabetization with literacy , based on the graduation of teachers. The study was accomplished in a municipal Elementary School in the Ceará-Mirim city, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, which offers both I and II levels of the Elementary School, 7 teachers and the principal of the school were subjects of our researches. The starting point was the needs of the graduation as subject phenomena, socially created and that allow people to be aware of the goals of a graduation. The investigative broach is qualitative, whose fundamental purpose is the understanding of the meanings, symbols, values and intentions of the mankind actions, as regards to other humanbeing and the contexts in which they interact. Within this context, we chose the investigation-action for we consider this kind of research a place for investigation and professional graduation, in which teachers and the researcher herself assume responsibility of problematizing, build the needs of graduation and think about their practices. As proceedings to create and analyze data, we developed participant observations during the activities in classroom; semi-structured interviews (individual and in groups) with teachers and the principal; analysis of documents and meetings at school for reflexive studies that enabled us to gather data in a pyramidal panoramic view and analyze the contents. The research revealed that the analysis of necessities to graduate teachers is a resource able to contribute to the planning of projects of keeping on graduating more properly, and thus create a critical and reflexive identity for teachers. This way, it was possible the graduation necessities could be revealed and also the knowledge of teachers as regards to alphabetization inserted in a perspective of literacy. Nowadays, conceptualized needs upon difficulties of teachers, there is a tendency to translate them into theorization of problems, without application to these knowledge of teachers, as well as their wishes for changing, especially when those needs are built to analyze and consider concrete practices. Therefore, the graduation experiences have enabled the abandon of a mechanical broach for teaching reading and writing. It has also lead teachers to assume a posture of providing their students the understanding about the reading and writing processes and their functions as social instruments. The graduation theme contents allowed the knowledge to conceive reading and writing in new perspectives, according to their social functions, so that they can improve the education with literacy quality. This theoretical construction has enabled us to understand and consider the necessities of the graduation as progressive process, and has given us the possibility of re-think our own learning processes at the university and review the pedagogical practices of public school teachers. Our conclusion is that once teachers consider their own graduation needs, it contributes to change their concepts and practices in education and literacy, even though there used to be many difficulties in their graduation and organization of the pedagogical work

O Programa Pró-Letramento e a formação de alfabetizadores: repercussões nas concepções e práticas de professores cursistas

This paper intents to investigate the repercussions of the Pró-Letramento - Alphabetization and Language Course Program in the practices and conceptions of alphabetization of learning teachers, according to their own perspectives. The program, part of the National Formation Network of the Education Ministry, in partnership with public universities since 2006, is destined to aid the formation of teachers acting in the first three years of public basic education, with the goal of qualifying them to work with alphabetization and improve quality of learning processes and results. This investigation adopted the qualitative research paradigm as well as the Case Study methodology, being our empirical field a Belém do Brejo do Cruz/PB public school. The subjects are five Program graduation female teachers, including the tutor-trainer and four graduated teachers that already teach in the first three years of basic education. The data, gathered with documental analysis, individual and collective semi-structured interview, and non-participant observation, were analyzed according with Speech Analysis principals. Based on those principals, we intersected teachers enunciations, observation sessions registries and the Program s propositions and built interpretations based on theorization taken as fundaments of the investigation, among which we highlight: studies on a criticalreflexive perspective of a teacher s formation; continued formation as a permanent development process; the principals of historical-cultural approach on alphabetization processes and development with the centrality of language; alphabetization in a interactionist approach. The analysis focused on the Program s repercussions: 1) in the teachers conceptions about: 1.1) learning; 1.2) Alphabetization and literacy; and in the practices and conceptions related to: 1.3) alphabetization in a literacy perspective and 1.4) appropriation of the writing system. The corpus analysis evidenced relations of continuity and discontinuity, approach and distancing between the teachers conceptions and the Program s propositions, as well as conceptions/significance of their speeches and related or observed practices. Observing teachers elaborations evidences the repercussion of the Program s formation, whilst also showing gaps and mismatches in their appropriation process in concepts/assumptions as well as teaching propositions. These mismatches involve interaction relationships between teachers and students, with their possibilities and limitations surrounding the Program s knowledge objects complexity, also linking to the social, economical, political, and cultural conditions that involve both the implementation of the Program in each context and the conditions in which alphabetization in public schools are developed, demanding permanent and accompanied formation processes, investments to improve work conditions and valuing teaching

Aprendendo e ensinando o sistema de numeração decimal: uma contribuição à prática pedagógica do professor

The central question of the present study is to identify the epistemological knowledge that the teachers-trainees possess regarding the characteristics (properties) of the decimal numbering system; its purpose is to offer a contribution to the pedagogic practice of the teachers who work within the Basic Literacy Cycle, in terms of what concerns both the acquisition of contents and the development of the knowledge that helps them in the elaboration of adequate strategies to working with the Decimal Numbering System in the classroom. The study is based on the constructivist sociointeractionist approach to teaching Mathematics and it constitutes, in itself, a methodological intervention with the teachers-trainees engaged in the Professional Qualification Program in Basic Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. The foundations of the study were found in investigations of researchers who had carried out studies on the construction of numerical writing, showing, for instance, that the construction process of ideas and procedures involved in groupings and changes to base 10 take a lot longer to be accomplished than one can imagine. A set of activities was then elaborated which could not only contribute to the acquisition of contents but that could also make the teachers-trainees reflect upon their teaching practices in the classroom so that in this way they will be able to elaborate more consistent didactic approaches, taking into consideration the previous knowledge of the students and also some obstacles that often appear along the way. Even when teachers have access to the most appropriate dicactic resources, the lack of knowledge of the content and of the real meaning of that content make the Decimal Numbering System, a subject of fundamental importance, be taught most times in a mechanical way. The analisys of the discussions and behaviours of the teachers-trainees during the activities reavealed that they made them reflect upon their current practices in the classroom and that, as a whole, the aims of each of the activities carried out with the teachers-trainers were reached

Saberes de astronomia no 1º e 2º ano do ensino fundamental numa perspectiva de letramento e inclusão

This work suggests a discussion about methodologies and didactic-pedagogical activities for the teaching of Astronomy in first and second cycles of the primary school, in a perspective of literacy and inclusion. The presented proposals have been developed in a group of the Public School Alceu Amoroso Lima, North of Natal city, with children since six years old, amongst which two considered as being with special needs . This research aims to demonstrate that it is possible to develop with those children the contents of Astronomy, while they participate of the process of literacy and inclusion. From this, we are searching a theoretical-practical contribution so that the Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (Brazilian Nacional Curricular Guideness) include the referred contents in first cycle of primary school. For the accomplishment of this research, Experiential Astronomy was initially proposed. Later on, many workshops had been carried through (clay, ripping , crepon paper, plasticine, cardboard and gastro-lunar ). All the proposed activities were based on the conjunction of contents, which characterized the interdisciplinarity. Through the approach we adopted and the practices we proposed, we could evidence that not only children considered as being normal , but also that ones who carries special needs could appropriate themselves of our writing code, develop and incorporate a daily relationship close to the stuffs of the sky, learn many information about all of this, besides constructing attitudinal, procedural and conceptual contents

O leitor universitário e a construção das práticas de ler e escrever textos impressos e digitais

The construction of a mapping of the practices of reading and writing printed and digital texts, declared by graduating students from the Bachelor s degree in Science and Technology (BCT), has provided us the analysis of the course they are making in such a socio-historical moment characterized by the revolution of the post-paper. In this sense, the general objective of this research is to understand how that construction works under the point of view of those graduating students. For this, our reflection has been guided by the search of answers for some questions which have presented to us: what reading and writing conceptions BCT graduating students have; what reading and writing practices those collaborators develop; what collections they declare to have access to; what differences they declare to have between printed and digital reading and writing along the different social roles they develop; what the reader/writer identity relations of those collaborators are. To achieving the plausible answers, we have gathered a corpus composed by texts of three genres of the argument order: academic profiles (or self-portrait), opinion articles and argumentative letters. Besides, we have made semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in the online tool of the Google Docs. The methodology which supports this academic work is the qualitative research (SIGNORINI; CAVALCANTI, 1998)of ethnographic direction (THOMAS, 1993; ANDRÉ, 1995) in Applied Linguistics (CELANI, 2000; MOITA-LOPES, 2006) and the theoretical contribution comes from the bakhtinian perspective of language conception (BAKHTIN [1929] 1981); the socio-historical writing construction (LÉVY, 1996; CHARTIER, R., 1998, 2002, 2007; COSCARELLI, 2006; CHARTIER, A., 2007; ARAÚJO, 2007; COSCARELLI; RIBEIRO, 2007; XAVIER, 2009; MARCUSCHI; XAVIER, 2010); from the studies of the pedagogy of the writing (GIROUX, 1997); from the literacy studies understood as sociocultural practice, plural and situated (TFOUNI, 1988; KLEIMAN, 1995; TINOCO, 2003, 2008; OLIVEIRA; KLEIMAN, 2008), from the studies about identity in postmodernity (HALL, 2003; BAUMAN, 2005). The results of the analysis have pointed at a multiplicity of reading/writing practices of printed and digital texts developed by the BCT graduating students due to the coexistence of the modality printed and that one derived from the new mobile devices. In that multiplicity, the prevalent idea of the collaborators is that there is a continuum between printed texts and digital texts (not a dichotomy), since the option of reading/writing printed texts or digital ones is always linked to specific communication situations, which involve participants, objectives, strategies, values, (dis)advantages, besides (re)creation of discursive genres in function of the mobile devices to which those collaborators have access in the different spheres of activities that they participate. All of that has caused a deep intersection in the identity traces of college students readers/writers in the 21st century which cannot be ignored by academic formation

Práticas de leitura e escrita na formação em ciências e tecnologia

The discussion about the need of improving the reading and the writing practices of professionals from the most different knowledge areas has caused, in Brazilian and foreign institutions of higher education, a movement of insertion of curricula components whose focus is the reading and the writing in academic formation. To contributing with the reflection about that discussion, this master s degree dissertation has as object of study the situated linguistic formation. Our general objective is to analyze a linguistic formation proposal to graduating students from the Bachelor s degree in Science and Technology (BCT) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). To constructing that analysis, we have established four specific objectives: a) verifying if the ten brazilian Institutions of Higher Education which offer the BCT have curricula components of reading and writing directed to that formation; b) describing how these Bachelor s degree reading and writing curricula components are presented; c) examining differences and similarities which, in general, exist among curricula components related to reading and writing in each one of the researched institutions; d) revealing which categories delineate the linguistic formation developed in the BCT of the UFRN. In order to reaching our goals, this work has been based on the dialogical conception of the language (BAKHTIN [1952-1953] 2010), on the literacy studies (KLEIMAN [1995] 2008; TINOCO, 2008) and on the critical pedagogy (FREIRE, 1980; 2007). Methodologically, this qualitative research of ethnographic direction (ANDRÉ, 1995) is grounded in Applied Linguistics (PEREIRA; ROCA, 2009; PASCHOAL; CELANI (Orgs.), 1992). This research has the contribution of professors, scholars and monitors of the field of Reading and Writing Practices (PLE) and also graduating students from the UFRN BCT which had already studied PLE-I and/or PLE-II. The tools used for data collection/generation were: curricula components programs related to reading and writing in the BCT in the researched higher education institutions (IES), questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and profiles. The generated data allowed us to establish the following analysis categories: situationality (real situation, thematic contemporaneity and thematic focalization) and literacy projects (learning community and protagonism). The results achieved show that most IES which offer BCT worry about improving the reading and writing competences of their graduating students; however, there is still a lot to be done (increase of the number of class hours, contents and methodological aspects review, theoretical referential sophistication) so that the curricula components can be configured as a situated and significant linguistic formation. Finally, we make some suggestions for improving the work which has been made in the BCT of the UFRN, making then the mother tongue teaching in courses of the area of exact and technological sciences stronger

Letramento no trânsito: eventos e práticas na formação de condutores de veículos

In the contemporary society, the language is presented in all social spaces and assumes many different purposes in order to meet the needs that emerge from each of these sphere. In traffic, this reality is not different. To guide vehicles, it is necessary to know, by means of reading artifacts, what the legislation establishes in what concerns the way to act in this domain. Thus, this works aims at describing the practices of literacy held in events of driver trainings and know the expectations generated by drivers/learners from this training. In theoretical terms, it anchors in Literacy Studies, comprehended here as social practices (BARTON; HAMILTON, 1998; KLEIMAN, 1995, 2008; MORTATTI, 2004; STREET, 1984; OLIVEIRA, 2008, 2010; ROJO, 2009; PAZ, 2008). Genre Theory (BRONCKART, 2004, 1999; OLIVEIRA, 2010) and in your multimodal instance (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996; DIONÍSIO, 2006). In terms of methodology, it follows the bias of qualitative research, because of its ethnographic nature (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994; MINAYO, 2010; CANÇADO, 1994; CHIZZOTTI, 2005). The research corpus was generated by reading the Brazilian Traffic Code, by observing the literacy events held in Drivers Training Centers of Natal, analysis of course books used in these events, plus questionnaires with open and closed questions and semistructured interviews. The collaborators are constituted of drivers in training, and instructors who work in this field. The analyses show significant contributions regarding the placement more committed of future drivers with the welfare and safety of those who use the public roads, from the practice or reading done during the traffic training. The contribution of this work lies in the possibility to expand the discussion about the language practice uses regarding the training for the traffic, more specifically, the training of drivers of vehicles

A linguagem do blog escolar em um trabalho com multiletramentos: compartilhando sentidos

This research, part of Applied Linguistics field, aims to analyze the language of a school blog, developed with the participation of students, as a work based on the conception of multiliteracies, focusing on the construction of different meanings. The research is carried on from the building and maintenance of a school blog, the Ieceblog, with students of Ensino Fundamental II, since 2008, in a private school in Natal-RN. The investigation of the language produced on a school blog is justified due to the interactive conceptions of writing and reading on the virtual environment. Given the fact that new technologies are a reality in the schools opened to the practices of multiliteracies, it is assumed that text, image, video, audio, non-graphic signs and hypertext intensifies the produced interaction, in which the students become real authors. In this perspective, some voices belonging to the statements that are formed through the posts and comments chosen to the analyses and reflection on the blog space as locus of productions of senses inserted in the school and the world environment, as well as for the identification of the language resources used to intensify the senses that emerge from it. From the view of dialogism conceptualized by Bakhtin Circle, the qualitative interpretive-research deepens the experience of a school blog focusing on digital language in line with the vision of digital literacy. From the blog posts, a corpus that promote the exposure of different manifestations of language in the design of digital multiliteracies is elected. Thereby, the method used was the dialogical analysis of speech based on Bakhtin s studies and the Circle. The corpus was taken from the blog s posts in order to point up the different language manifestations in the following categories: (i) mood reinforced by the mockery, (ii) search for compliance with school sphere, (iii) conflicting social values and consistent complicity between sense and verbal imagery, and finally (iv) social practices that take place from and through the discursive genre. The study points to the tension between the active voices in several directions, revealing the distorted unit of posts which, under the analytical observation raises multiple meanings in a responsive manner. The analysis of the dialogue interaction in which intersperses the digital one becomes more apparent that the multiliteracies events that are mediated by language in addition to structure of the language and makes us rethink the students

Saberes necessários para a docência na educação de jovens e adultos

The present thesis, entitled Knowledge for teaching: reflecting over the Youth and Adult Education, mainly considered common aspects concerning teachers knowledge and youth and adult education. It aimed to analyze, in partnership with its participants, the knowledge which is requested for teaching youth and adults. It focused on the following question: What teaching knowledge is necessary for the professionals who work during the first grades of elementary school with the youth and adults? The research took place in a school named Escola Municipal São Lucas, located in the city of Vitória da Conquista, state of Bahia, having as reference the discourses of four participants involved in the experience of research-formation. The collaborative approach, based on qualitative principles, was the adopted theoricalmethodological way, considering four actions: describing, informing, confronting and reconstructing. Collective interviews, study and reflection sessions, literacy practice observations, documental analysis and notes regarding field work were procedures adopted throughout the research. In order to analyze and organize data, we were supported by the discourse analysis, by Bakhtin (1997), specifically about the discussions around the ideas of theme and signification, which are concepts related to processual and dialectical analysis. The results and conclusions of the research make it possible to affirm that pedagogical practices, professional experiences, dialogues with other individuals and knowledge acquired at the university and at other learning environments are the participants main knowledge sources. When it comes to the local educational politics, it is observed contradiction between the participants desires regarding the school pedagogical routines and the proposals of the local government in relation to education. From our point of view, the knowledge identified and analyzed in this thesis demands the development of a diligent, technical, scientific and politically planned formative process (initial and continued), which requires fundamental public investments to recreate the educational politics and, consequently, the pedagogical experiences within the schools, contributing to the Youth and Adult Education professionalization process

Good practices in monitoring and reporting on the Millennium Development Goals: National lessons from Latin America

Includes bibliography

Building sustainable values in organizations with the support of human resource management: Evidence from one firm considered as the 'best place to work' in Brazil

Researchers and other professionals unanimously agree that companies should become more sustainable, but this will not happen without the support of human resource management. Paradoxically, there is a lack of information on the support human resource management offers to organizational sustainability applied to real cases. Therefore, this research presents a case study on this topic that was carried out in a leading Brazilian company, which is considered as a model and has been selected as 'the best place to work in the country'. The results provide practical examples of how this family company has been working to guarantee an increasingly sustainable performance with the support of human resources, highlighting the achievements and challenges the company has faced. One of the main results indicates that companies seeking to achieve sustainability need the assistance of the human resource field in order to design a communication system which bridges the gap between practices and sustainable values. © 2012 Management Centre for Human Values.