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Educação em Revista

versión impresa ISSN 0102-4698versión On-line ISSN 1982-6621

Educ. rev. vol.37  Belo Horizonte  2021  Epub 08-Jul-2021

https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-4698227113 

ARTIGO

DISTANCE EDUCATION IN ADVERTISING SPEECH: LEGALIZATION OF MODALITY IN BRAZIL AND ITS REPRESENTATIONS IN PRIVATE INITIATIVE COMMERCIALS

CLÉBER DOS SANTOS GONÇALVES1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3855-1217

MARIA LUISA FURLAN COSTA2 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4286-5892

1Doutorando em Educação/Comunicação (UEM/UFPR). Maringá, PR, Brasil.<binho.clebergoncalves@gmail.com>

2Professora Associada (UEM). Doutora em Educação (Unesp/Araraquara). Maringá, PR, Brasil. <luisafurlancosta@gmail.com>


ABSTRACT:

The final objective of this work is the analysis of discursive regularities present in commercials regarding Distance Education (DE), considering the legal formalization process of the modality in Brazil. Therefore, we selected the “Inspiring Stories” campaign, composed of five videos and produced by the University of Northern Paraná (Unopar) - Higher Education Institution (HEI) of private initiative that has more than 300 thousand students spread across the country. Before the analytical process, made with contributions from the French Discourse Analysis (DA), we explored historical and political aspects related to the formalization and expansion of the modality in Brazil, as well its relationship with higher education. As conclusion, we understand that, in the search for an increasingly large number of students, the speeches are not always faithful to the initial ideals aimed at the regulation of distance education, linked to the democratization of access to higher education, and start to explore discursive paths such as the ease of obtaining an undergraduate degree.

Keywords: Distance Education; College Education; Discourse analysis; Publicity; Public Policy

RESUMO:

O objetivo final deste trabalho é a análise de regularidades discursivas presentes em comerciais a respeito da Educação a Distância (EaD), levando-se em conta o processo de formalização legal da modalidade no Brasil. Para tanto, selecionamos a campanha “Histórias Inspiradoras”, composta por cinco vídeos e produzida pela Universidade do Norte do Paraná (Unopar) - Instituição de Ensino Superior (IES) de iniciativa privada que possui mais de 300 mil alunos espalhados pelo país. Antes do processo analítico, feito com contribuições da Análise do Discurso (AD) francesa, exploramos aspectos históricos e políticos ligados à formalização e expansão da modalidade no Brasil, bem como sua relação com a educação superior. Como conclusão, compreendemos que, na busca por um número de alunos cada vez mais volumoso, nem sempre os discursos são fiéis aos ideais iniciais apontados para a regulamentação da EaD, vinculados à democratização do acesso à educação superior, e passam a explorar trajetos discursivos como o da facilidade de obtenção de um diploma de graduação.

Palavras-chave: Educação a Distância; Educação Superior; Análise do Discurso; publicidade; políticas públicas

RESUMEN:

El objetivo final de este trabajo es el análisis de las regularidades discursivas presentes en los comerciales sobre la Educación a Distancia (EaD), tomando en cuenta el proceso de formalización legal de la modalidad en Brasil. Para ello, seleccionamos la campaña “Historias inspiradoras”, compuesta por cinco videos y producida por la Universidad del Norte de Paraná (Unopar) - Institución de Educación Superior (IES) de iniciativa privada que cuenta con más de 300 mil estudiantes repartidos por todo el país. Antes del proceso analítico, realizado con aportes del Análisis del Discurso francés (AD), exploramos aspectos históricos y políticos relacionados con la formalización y expansión de la modalidad en Brasil, así como su relación con la educación superior. Como conclusión, entendemos que, en la búsqueda de un número cada vez mayor de estudiantes, los discursos ni siempre son fieles a los ideales iniciales indicados a la reglamentación de la educación a distancia, vinculados a la democratización del acceso a la educación superior, y empiezan a explorar caminos discursivos como la facilidad de obtener un diploma de pregrado.

Palabras clave: Educación a distancia; Educación universitaria; Análisis del discurso; Publicidad; Políticas públicas

INTRODUCTION

One day, walking through the corridors of a Shopping Center, we came across a fact, which was presented to us as unusual, curious, funny and worrying: a store created exclusively for the sale of distance courses of a particular Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). Through the use of bold advertising resources, the attempts to convince people to adquire high level education were mixed with those proper to this commercial space, focused on the production of products and services, in a clear dynamics of a capitalist society.

Immediately, as researchers in the field of education, more specifically Distance Education (Distance Education), we once again set out to reflect on the market exploitation this modality has been under, within the legal transformations in the country, which have driven the recognition and expansion of this way of teaching and learning in higher education. In this scenario, the role of advertising is crucial for attracting new students - also seen as clients - , which reinforces aspects that coincide with merchandise, since the course offering is treated as a negotiation value.

This is the reflection that structured the present work. The main objective of the present work, which is linked to the master's research we developed within the Graduate Program in Education of the State University of Maringá (UEM), in the line of research Public Policies and Education Management, is to analyze the discursive regularities present in the advertising of courses offered through distance education model considering the process of legal formalization of the model in Brazil. To this end, we selected a series of five videos, components of the campaign "Inspiring Stories" of the University of Northern Paraná (Unopar). As a methodological criterion, the institution was chosen because it has the largest number of students in Brazil, with more than 300,000 enrolled3. The choice of the series that composes the corpus of analysis was based on three main criteria: 1) Production representing a campaign, with at least three materials of the same objective and identity, not being an isolated action; 2) Production that considers the profile of the DE student, for the understanding of the convincing strategies; 3) Production that has been produced after the publication of the last decree of LDB regulation in relation to the DE, that is, 9.057/17.

As a support for the analysis, we use legal and historical bases on the expansion of DE in the Brazilian scenario, in order to understand the process of insertion of the modality in Brazilian public policies, as well as practical reflexes resulting from this aspect. In the specific analytical process of materials, we also use contributions emanating from the theoretical-methodological current of Discourse Analysis (DA), more precisely that of French affiliation to find foundations focused on discursive analysis from some central themes. The result of the present work consists of one of the possibilities of understanding the discourses present in the materials, which makes them continuously possible sources of other readings and (re)significations.

The term DA includes many interpretations in itself. In the theoretical bases, there is a numerous reference list of theorists and sublines linked to this field of knowledge. According to Gregolin (2003), from a historical perspective, aspects of this theoretical current have originated more than two thousand years ago, in the context of studies related to Greek Rhetoric. Thus, a long journey brings together common ideas and understandings about the phenomenon of discourse.

According to Gregolin (2003), this theoretical current comes to Brazil in the 1970s, constituting, in contemporaneity, a fertile field of research, with influence of studies from linguistics, in association with social problems of history. However, the theoretical field is marked by constant reconfigurations, based on what occurred since the beginning.

Thus, DA can be understood as the set of research and investigation studies that consider the discourse moved by meanings and significations linked to different contexts and historical and social moments. In this action, more than being conceived as an interface between fields of science already consecrated, DA is positioned as a fertile field of discussions that permeates the linguistic, historical, philosophical, anthropological and communicative domains, but at the same time offers these fields the resources necessary for their constant (re)signification. The choice of DA, in this case, was due to the fact that, as explained by Charaudeau (2002), it is the theoretical-methodological current that has the communication act, formed from specific purposes, as object of analysis. In advertising pieces, therefore, this is an effective strategy for the analytical procedure.

Understanding that pure analysis does not correspond to the general objective of this work, we resorted, before the analytical procedure, to documentary and bibliographic research on DE in Brazil, trying to understand the historical and political movements that led to the legalization of the modality. This exercise contributed to the general understanding of the process through which the modality went until its regulation and the impact on higher education (level more re-signified with legislation). In addition, it was possible to build, from the understanding of political movements, theoretical and legal bases in the analysis process.

For such reasons, this paper is divided into five parts: 1. Introduction, which presents the motivations and theoretical and methodological paths of the research; 2. DE in Brazil: Historical and Political Contextualization, in which general aspects about the process of formalization of the modality in the country are treated; 3. DA in the legal texts of education and reflexes in higher education, in which we discuss the focus of public policies and their impact on the last level of education; 4. Discursive Analysis of Unopar 'Inspiring Stories' Campaign Commercials, part of the commercials' analytical procedure, in the light of DA; and 5. Final Considerations, moment of fixation of the discursive regularities present in the materials under analysis.

Based on Silveira and Córdova (2009), methodologically, this research can be classified as follows: regarding the approach, it is quali-quantitative, since, despite prioritizing the qualitative aspects, it makes use of quantitative instruments that help in the route of analysis; regarding its nature, it is applied, as it aims to generate knowledge for practical application; with regard to objectives, it is exploratory, as it tends to create an approximation with the object of study, making it more explicit, based on the elaboration of hypotheses; and regarding the procedures, it mixes bibliographic, documental and case study aspects.

DE IN BRAZIL: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION

Today, distance education cannot be discussed - as with regard to discursive representations, which is what we propose here - without understanding the political, social and historical movements that led to the formalization of this way of teaching and learning. For this reason, we resort to the bases of the modality for a general understanding of the process of its insertion in Brazilian public policies.

Even before DE was formalized in Brazil, as a modality, there were already isolated and/or integrated distance learning initiatives in the country. Based on the bibliographical references on the subject, the exact moment when such experiences began cannot be specified, since, as Oliveira and Costa (2018) assert, the information is not systematized. Therefore, “finding the objectives, contents and methodologies of these courses” (p. 53) is not possible.

Despite this fact, some projects considering the possibilities of teaching and learning beyond face-to-face aspects stand out with some regularity in the literature, which helps us to understand the process of implementing distance education in our country. According to Alves (2001), there is evidence of distance learning in Brazil since the end of the 19th century. For example, the author highlights:

[...] Jornal do Brasil, which started its activities in 1891, registers in the first edition of the classifieds section an advertisement offering professionalization by correspondence (typist), which shows that alternatives for improvement were already being sought to Brazilian education and raises doubts about the true initial moment of DE (ALVES, 2001, p. 2).

However, one of the events signaled as pillars for structuring this alternative type of teaching-learning is the creation of Rádio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro, in 1923 (TAVARES, 1997). Through this experience, idealized by Roquette-Pinto, radio started to serve educational projects, surpassing the purely commercial aspect.

The idea of instructional training that would reach everyone and not be restricted to school walls gained notoriety and popular approval and, to this initiative, other vehicles began to join forces, such as newspapers, books and magazines. However, radio continued to be the reference, at that first moment, because, at the time, the resources of this technology allowed a greater reach of the public, in comparison with that of other vehicles. Nevertheless, Brazilian society witnessed, throughout the 20th century, the intensification of distance learning experiences based on different means, resources and technologies, an aspect that accompanied what was already happening in different parts of the world.

In 1939, for example, the Monitor Institute was created in São Paulo, possibly the first Brazilian institution to promote vocational courses by correspondence in the country. In the same vein and with the same objectives, the Brazilian Universal Institute appears in 1914, which is known for training thousands of people, with open courses and which maintains activities up to the present time (ALVES, 2011).

The Ar University is an experience that deserves to be highlighted. Originated in the same year as the creation of the Brazilian Universal Institute, its activities were completed at the end of World War II, in 1944, being resumed with the support and sponsorship of the National Service for Commercial Learning (Senac), in 1947, operating during other twenty years. Speaking of Senac, it is worth noting that this well-known organization still has activities (ALVES, 2011).

It is true many of the Brazilian distance learning initiatives verified here were born in Brazil. However, there are some experiences originated abroad, whose mentors saw the possibility of implementing different activities. The Ocidental School, installed in São Paulo in the 1960s, but of American origin, is an example (ALVES, 2011).

In the following decade, 1970, several initiatives contemplated TV, which, little by little, began to be popularized and presented the possibility of exploring audiovisual resources. The National Teleeducation System, which provided courses based on instructional materials, was born at that time (ALVES, 2011).

Higher education also gradually came to be considered in the expansion of distance learning initiatives. Two projects stand out in this regard: The creation of courses published by newspapers and magazines, by the University of Brasília, in 1979, and the creation of the Open University of Brasília, in 1992. In addition, the teaching class is also covered. In 1991, for example, the “Education News - Teacher's Edition” became part of open TV, under the name “A Jump to the Future”, being a reference among the proposals for continuing education (ALVES, 2011).

In the end of the 20th century, the expansion of the use of technological resources in internet-based communication was noticed. In this context, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) assume a central position, which leveraged the communicative possibilities (PEREIRA & SILVA, 2010 ), being considered crucial for the formalization and realization of distance education.

In the last decade of the 20th century, there was a reinforcement of the defense of formalization of distance education in the Brazilian educational structure, allied to the experiences already carried out. It is important to emphasize that all these initiatives were not part of the Brazilian educational legislation and structure. Therefore, educational formations were classified only as open courses.

In this context, the discussion about the formalization of ED begins to create consistency. In addition to the experiences already known, there were international examples that pointed to the need to overcome the face-to-face aspect in order to teach and learn. Recommendations from national and international bodies and organizations for the improvement of education also emerged in emerging countries, for which the creation of the distance modality converged. In the recommendations, education is identified as strategic for the improvement of vital conditions (BANCO MUNDIAL, 1996, p. 1).

Considering the scenario of economic and political instability that Brazil, along with other developing countries, faced at the end of the 20th century, the guidelines occurred in order to increase, in an accelerated way, the insertion of Brazilians in the last Brazilian educational level. Discussions in this regard began to emerge since the 1970s, but it was from 1990 that practical and real indications found support and legitimacy, alongside politically implemented reforms.

Thus, the trend was to encourage the acceleration of supply and entry into higher education - which should serve the interests of the private sector, in order to promote professional training according to the existing reality - under the discourse of democratization of access, but with flexibility as to the forms of financing of this level of education, with less state participation (aspect advocated by neoliberalism) and support for the development of private institutions. Therefore, Brazilian discussions and legislations on the subject were constructed in these circumstances, resulting in significant changes in the educational area. DE, in this context, is one of the bias through which such recommendations have been fulfilled.

DE IN THE LEGAL TEXTS OF THE FIELD OF EDUCATION AND REFLEXES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Considering the formalization of DE in Brazil represented an impact mainly on the last level of education, we must understand the relation between legislation dealing with the theme and higher education.

The formalization of the DE, followed by its implementation, begins with the enactment of the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDBEN) of 1996. In the beginning, the treatment given to the modality was timid, an aspect that was changed as new specific legal texts began to be edited and published. Despite appearing at several parts of the legal document, the distance modality is emphasized more intensely in Article 80, which ensures that DE initiatives, at all levels and stages of school education, should be promoted and encouraged by the Public Power. It also establishes that it would be up to the Union to regulate the provision of higher education courses in this modality, with regard to the accreditation of institutions; conducting examinations; registration and issuance of diplomas; production; control; and evaluation. The text of sad Law also states the modality should receive differentiated treatment, including special spaces, with different conditions and prices, in media productions in national territory (BRASIL, 1996). All regulations should be drawn up posteriorly; that is, from there on, LDBEN ensures the missing conditions for the formalization of the modality in Brazil.

Since then, a wide variety of legal instruments regarding DE is observed. However, the three Decrees prepared to regulate Article 80 of LDBEN should be highlighted: those of numbers 2,494/98, 5,622/05 and 9,057/17. These decrees were chronologically replacing themselves and favored the rapid expansion of the modality.

The most recent, of 2017, for example, brought several prerogatives to the offer of courses of the modality. The first differentiation between this legal instrument and the previous ones is related to the definition of distance education. Article 1 of what is currently in force, in addition to the considerations about the existing modality, points out that it develops "[...] with qualified personnel, with access policies, with compatible monitoring and evaluation, among other [...]" aspects (BRASIL, 2017, Art.1º).

Another highlight derived from the last document consists of preventing the offer of face-to-face courses in own and specific facilities for the development of distance education, when this is not provided for by law (BRASIL, 2017, Art. 5, § 2). It is also worth mentioning the permission for accreditation of an institution destined to exclusively offer distance learning courses, as long as undergraduate and not only lato sensu graduate courses are offered (BRASIL, 2017, Art. 11).

It is important to look at Article 12 of the aforementioned decree, which automatically makes public higher education institutions accredited to offer distance courses. Visit in loco is now stipulated only to the headquarters of the institutions applying for accreditation, and not in each of these centers (BRASIL, 2017, Art. 13).

In its Article 15, the document also points to the possibility of carrying out activities considered essentially face-to-face in places other than the headquarters or poles, a condition that contributes to the establishment of partnerships with institutions of different levels, stages and teaching modalities duly equipped.

The process of formalizing and implementing distance education in Brazil, as can be seen from a careful reading of the legal instruments, is marked by two main aspects: the focus on higher education, to increase the number of enrollments at this level of education, and, successively, ease for the expansion of courses, with flexibility for access to higher education.

More than 20 years after the beginning of the formalization and regulation of the modality, memorable impacts in the context of higher education are verified The numbers on offer and enrollment in DE courses show that the modality was one of the main aspects responsible for considerably expanding access to the last level of education in recent years.

According to Higher Education Census (2018), in the national scenario, the distance modality was the main responsible for the increase in the number of enrollments in higher education in 2017, compared to 2016. This is because, in face-to-face modality, there was an insignificant increase, of 0.5%, in the number of newcomers, going from 2,142,463 to 2,152,752. In the courses offered through DE, there was a significant increase from one year to the other, from 843,181 to 1,073,497, an increase of 27.3%.

In addition, when comparing the time span of 2007 to 2017, we may see a trend of DE expansion much more expressive than that observed in the face-to-face modality, in relation to the number of newcomers in each year and, consequently, the number of students enrolled in that level of education. At the beginning of the analyzed period, 329,271 students had enrolled in courses of the modality and this number only grew each year, compared to 1,073,497 in 2017, more than the triple.

If we consider the numbers related to enrollments in general (and not just newcomers), the data draw even more attention. Considering undergraduate courses, from 2016 to 2017, there was a 0.4% decrease in the number of enrollments in face-to-face modality, while in DE there was 17.6% increase, the largest increase ever recorded since 2008.

Hence, two pieces of information that must be considerd: the first is that, despite the face-to-face modality accounting for the largest number of enrollments in higher education, the growth of distance education is much faster, after all, in ten years (from 2007 to 2017), while face-to-face attendance had a 33.8% increase in the number of enrollments, the distance modality practically quintupled this number (an increase of 375.2%); secondly, it is important to highlight that, due to this positive balance of the modality, considering all those currently enrolled in higher education, the participation of distance education rose from 7% to 21.2% in just one decade.

Another fact deserves to be highlighted: higher education, in Brazil, is predominantly supported by the private sector. The Census shows that around 88% of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are supported by this initiative, while 12% are linked to the public initiave. Thus, we realize the creation of prerogatives for the expansion of distance courses favors, mainly, organizations not supported by the Public Power, which provides possibilities for education to be treated more and more as a priceable product/service. In affirming this, we agree with Corbucci, Kubota & Meira (2016), who point out that transformations of the 1990s in the last level of education significantly contributed to higher education being explored by the private sector. In addition, in the same period, fiscal adjustment cuts were made, which negatively impacted the investments made in the public education area by the Union. At the same time, as the authors point out, great flexibility with more facilities for private institutions in the authorization, accreditation and recognition processes was achieved and continued in the following years. This entire process contributed to widening the gap between the offer of free public courses and paid courses, which intensified the marketing exploration in the educational area.

All of this, as Carvalho (2013) clarifies, occurred in line with what was experienced in different parts of the world, culminating in different results, such as the creation of what has been named as educational companies, which compete with each other.

Educational companies began to adopt new strategies in the face of fierce competition promoted by the recent boom in the 1990s. In the search for "customers", the diversification of courses made it possible to offer teaching modalities with less academic prestige, focused on differentiation in due to demand or local context. Examples are sequential, distance and extension courses and lato sensu postgraduate courses (CARVALHO, 2013, p. 767).

As Sguissardi (2008) asserts, the educational field began to serve the capitalist system in an increasingly memorable way, becoming a market element. This commercialized space - due to the exponential growth of the private sector and the condition of payment for education - started to require different strategies, such as advertising (CARVALHO, 2013).

By taking this entire context into account, we consider it important to reflect on how the discourse about distance education has been propagated. Do the messages linked to the modality do justice to the democratic ideals to which it was linked for the formalization?

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF UNOPAR'S “INSPIRING STORIES” CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL

Here we explore advertising materials produced by Unopar. We start from the concept of clipping explored by Orlandi (1984). According to her, clipping can be conceived as “a discursive unit”, guided by the idea of “correlated fragments of language-and-situation”. The clipping is, then, “a fragment of the discursive situation” (ORLANDI, 1984, p. 14). On the other hand, segmentation also brings with it the idea of fragmentation, however from semantic and syntactic aspects, typical of the organization of a sentence, and, therefore, encompasses mechanical and automatic separation practices. In addition to the structural characteristics, the cut is linked to the whole in which it is constituted; in other words, it is related to all product conditions of a discourse.

The corpus of analysis is composed of five commercials, about 1min39s long each, published on the institution's official channel on youtube. Unopar was chosen because it was the Brazilian HEI that had, at the time of this research, the largest number of enrolled students, according to MEC data, also published on the institution's official website. Still as a practice of clipping, we emphasize the videos analyzed here make up the “Inspiring Stories” campaign, aired from 2016 onwards. Below, we list the materials explored in the research:

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

Chart 01: Characterization of the research’s object materials 

We then cut the materials, presenting them in two main categories: sets of frames, that is, frames for fixing scenes and/or sequences of scenes and Verbal Transcripts (VTs), taken from the materials. This form of organization is necessary, since frames and verbal resources are mutually related, giving each other possible meanings. To the analytical material in question, as it is an audiovisual production, the images appear as a symbolic representation of the scenes; therefore, in our understanding, they are part of materialized discourse. All materials have QR Code, in case the reader deems it necessary to watch them in full. We emphasize the analysis does not take into account the elements item by item, frame by frame, but the context and the full and general representation of each video.

The institution that signs for the materials, Unopar, whose headquarters is in Londrina, is considered the Brazilian HEI with the highest number of enrolled students. By accessing the institution's website, we also find other information such as: the institution has more than 300,000 students; its tradition is more than 40 years old; and it is present in more than 450 Brazilian municipalities. Considering this, the campaign was chosen. Next, we expose the access codes for the five videos analyzed, as well as the sets of frames and VT; VT; VT; VT.

VT 1

Rodrigo Faro: It's worth fighting for what you want. Watch this success story. It can be yours.

João: There are times when we get a little discouraged, right? I don't know if it's age, if we're kind of lost when we're young. All I know is that when I finished high school, I was 18 years old. And I couldn't get a job at all. They asked for training, but my only training was playing video games. My mother kept talking, NE, in my ear: “Son, you have to study. You're a smart guy, a nice guy.” Mother’s thing, right? My friend Pedro came here the other day to play video games and commented that he was studying at Unopar, from distance. So, do you know when that click occurs? You say: “I have to change, I have to do something to get out of here”. But the teaching center was very far away and I had to go to class once a week. Then I found out that people from the city got a van at the city hall to take us there. Then there was no excuse, right? I had to study. I started to study and I found the teachers, the content and the tuition awesome, right, that I could pay. In the middle of the course, there was an internship vacancy, here at the city bank, one of the largest in the world. I did three evaluations and a selection process. I was chosen. My mother was very happy, she couldn't believe it. Imagine how she felt like. And today I am an executive teller. When we go after it, believing it can work, we go and do it.

VIDEO 1 - INSPIRING STORIES - JOÃO 

VT 2

Rodrigo Faro: Do you want to see how education can transform your life? Watch this inspiring story.

Carla: In the beginning it was very complicated. There are things that mark, you know, our lives... My mother always told me: “Daughter, studying is for those who have money. It's not for us, no”. Only I didn't believe it. My family was poor, I started cleaning houses since I was 15 years old. It was hard, right? In my little town, we didn't have college and I didn't have money. Hence, life comes and shows that it is not quite like that. That's when I met a friend. She told me about Unopar, explained to me about distance learning. It didn't even cross my mind, I didn't even know what it was. And then, I studied, studied a lot and was approved by the entrance exam. A happiness, like that, you can't even tell, you know? I saw that this was my chance. People had a certain prejudice against this type of study, because they think the study is weaker, but it isn't. I got an internship in the first year of study, but unfortunately I couldn't give up cleaning, right? Because the salary was low. However, as I've always been very dedicated, and people saw this in me, I improved myself, so I didn't need to clean any more houses. Today, everything is different. I have been a business administration ungraduate for seven years. I bought this house, I managed to travel, which was a dream I had, I bought my car. And best of all, I was able to give my mother a better life. I won in life.

VIDEO 2 - INSPIRING STORIES - CARLA 

VT 3

VIDEO 3 - INSPIRING STORIES - JULIANA 

VT 4

VIDEO 4 - INSPIRING STORIES - CLEITON 

VT 5

Ricardo: Married for thirty years, a family with three children, a nice job in the commercial area. What more could I want from life? But I wanted more. I wanted to get a degree, but that dream was always left for later. One time, I was lacking money, another time I was lacking time. The years went by and I told my wife about it and she always told me the following: “Your time has passed, forget it, relax. The time is now for our children”. But one day I saw an advertisement for Unopar and I felt the moment, I felt that the message was for me. I decided to take the entrance exam. But I also decided that I wouldn't say anything else to anyone. I passed the entrance exam. On the first day of class at the pole, I thought: “I'm here, I'm fifty, I'm having my college degree”. It was amazing. Of course, I also had to be very disciplined, because there are difficult times, but the team is always there to support us. I remember well they saying: “Look, the secret is not to pay attention to the difficulties and move on”. During the course, I made a lot of friends, I was rejuvenated in college. It was very important for me to go back to school, for me and for my work. Today, I like to introduce myself like this: “I'm Ricardo Soares, a fifty-year-old, married, father of a family, a salesman, and I'm a marketing bachelor, my buddy”.

VIDEO 5 - INSPIRING STORIES - RICARDO 

In this analytical path, which we propose to launch, the concept of Production Conditions (PCs) is considered indispensable, as it (in)determinates pre-conditions of legitimacy not only to discourses, but to social representations that concepts such as higher education/no higher education, university, superiority/inferiority and the labor market, among others, find and establish. In this sense, we turn to Orlandi (2005) to define two moments that need to be considered, with regard to discursive enunciation. Such moments, although diverse, are interconnected, in constant and mutual influences among themselves. The first of them can be considered in the strict sense, that is, it represents the slight circumstance of a certain enunciation. In other words, it is represented by characteristics such as the historical cutout/context in which the statement took place; who signs and (dis)originates the speech; the place/medium through which the discursive material circulated, among others. The broad sense, on the other hand, consists of the relation of a given statement with conditions and/or historical and social contexts that span generations and years, giving specific conceptions about certain subjects to a specific community/society; that is, it brings to “consideration of the effects of meanings and elements that derive from the form of our society” (ORLANDI, 2005, p. 29).

In the broad sense, as they are defense and attraction initiatives for higher education - specifically for undergraduation -, the materials are (in)directly related to the production and effects of meanings in our society with regard to themes intrinsic to them, such as the role of formal education; higher education training; and expectations, concepts and preconceptions about distance education.

The bases of education in Brazil were/are elitist and excluding and they are not linked only to higher education. The understanding of this phenomenon can only take place from the understanding of the historical roots that led to the conditions placed in contemporaneity. Saviani (2011), when dealing with pedagogical ideas and conceptions in our country, in an attempt to synthesize them, emphasizes that, on Brazilian soil, the duality between the education offered to the elites and that aimed at the lower classes is quite noticeable. Since the implantation of the bê-á-bá houses, by the Jesuits, in the middle of the 16th century, the ideology that a certain conception - especially the religious one at that time - was superior to others and should be apprehended was already present (BITTAR & FERREIRA JR., 2004). When the work with indigenous people loses strength, for reasons such as deaths from disease and extermination by “civilized men” (FAUSTO, 2009, p. 50), the pedagogical action gains new nuances of privilege, starting to be destined, clearly, to the elite, until the expulsion of the Jesuits from the country.

It took Brazil time and effort to set up the first universities. Despite the mismatches of information about the emergence of the first higher education in the country, using Teixeira (1989), we understand that it was only in 1808, that is, after more than three centuries of the arrival of the Portuguese, that the first course at this level was created, namely the Surgery, Anatomy and Obstetrics Course - which would later be transformed into the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Bahia - at the initiative of the Prince Regent (we must consider, however, that the first universities only emerged in the 20th century).

Thus, far from the pretension of historically exploring pedagogical concepts in Brazil and their successions and correlations, it seems important to highlight that the vision of the educational institution as a space of privileged has deep roots, which permeate the history and construction of Brazilian society, consisting in an error to relativize it and relate it to a simple time frame. According to Chauí (2012), this discrepancy between the public and the private is visibly perceived in our society. In her words,

[...] Brazilian society is oligarchic and polarized between the absolute need of the popular layers and the absolute privilege of the dominant and ruling layers. As we have seen, a lack is always particular and although it presupposes a right, it does not reach the universality of the latter. On the other hand, a privilege is, by definition, always particular and would cease to be a privilege if it were to become a universal right. The polarization between need and privilege, a finished expression of the oligarchic, authoritarian and violent structure of our society allows us to assess how difficult and complicated it has been to establish a democratic society in Brazil and give full meaning to citizenship (CHAUÍ, 2012, p. 13).

Still in Chauí (1980), in an interview to Folha de São Paulo about the educational universe, we understand that, in addition to serving as the reproducer of the dominant ideology, class structures and power relations, formal education has been related to more immediate economic conditions. The educational institution, in this way, started to incorporate the function of reproduction of the workforce. Thus, education deals with emergent and sudden objectives, such as capital, production and investment and has the function of generating social profit.

From these notes, we realize that historical and social influences have contributed/contribute to the understanding of education, more specifically of higher education, as an indispensable condition for a desired professional career and, as a consequence, for the capture of profits. Thus, those who can pay more have access to the best courses, which will give them better living conditions, reinforcing the social differences between classes. Therefore, the broad sense, with regard to education and higher education, can be thought of as the social understanding of the institutional space of education as a place of privileges/privileged and, thus, reinforcement of existing hegemonies and social differences.

It is not by chance that information about access to higher education in Brazil shows two aspects that we should pay attention to: 1) there is still a tiny percentage of graduates in some degree; 2) those who had more resources for training and preparation for the last level of education throughout their lives predominate in the classrooms of university centers, colleges and universities. According to the 2017 National Continuous Household Sample Survey (PNADC), with data from 2016, only 15% of Brazilians have completed higher education. In addition, the survey also pointed out that more than half of the vacancies in public universities are occupied by students from private schools. This may represent that, coinciding with the understanding of the educational space as one of privileges, the academic environment, even with all the popular, political and party initiatives of recent decades, is still marked by the presence of graduates from the private sector - read: those who are able to pay for educational training that meets their longings and expectations.

Let's start thinking, then, in the strict sense of the PCs of the objects of analysis. From the country's redemocratization in the final years of the 20th century, as we have seen, the possibilities of higher education training were intensified for several reasons, such as the need for specialized labor, meeting prerequisites and requirements of agencies and international organizations, among others. The formalization of distance education, which took place after LDBEN (1996), appears as a consequence of such occurrences. At first, in a shy and uncertain way. However, nowadays, the growth of the modality, year after year, in the number of vacancies and enrollments, surpasses that of the in-person. This can be understood from data from the Higher Education Census, which show a 27.3% increase in the number of newcomers from 2016 to 2017, while the face-to-face modality showed a variation of only 0.5%. When analyzing the number of enrollments, the data from these two years draw even more attention: while in the face-to-face modality the number of enrollments decreased by 0.4% from 2016 to 2017, in DE this balance is positive: the increase was 17.6 %, the biggest jump since 2008.

Thus, we need to consider two specific aspects involved in the specific conditions of material production: 1) the expansion of distance education has surpassed, in speed and intensity, that of the face-to-face modality, supported by legal openings; 2) Unopar, as the university with the most enrolled students, is one of the HEIs that have benefited the most from the prerogatives, rapidly expanding its field of action.

We must highlight that all discourse built on these materials is based on a temporal aspect, without which meanings are indeterminate. This means that the defense for DE only finds shelter in the context of time that, after a long process, legally recognizes the modality. In other words, as Pêcheux (1990) asserts, the dates are provided with a significant symbolic charge.

Advancing in the analysis, we would like to reinforce, once again, that the videos analyzed here are part of a campaign promoted by Unopar, under the title “Inspiring Stories”. The content of the work points out aspects of students who have already gone through the institution, seeking to demonstrate the benefits that higher education at the HEIs brings.

The campaign, as a whole, is presented by the artist Rodrigo Faro, who, in front of the program “Hora do Faro”, on Rede Record, is one of the best known broadcast TV presenters today. At 47, he has a career marked by modeling - which he started doing at the age of nine -, child presenter, musician (he joined Grupo Dominó, which was a real phenomenon in Brazil in the 1990s), actor and, currently host of the Sunday show that bears his artistic surname. In recent interviews, the artist stated that he is at his best professional stage and that he does not intend to return to acting, as he did in renowned soap operas such as “Malhação”, “O Cravo e a Rosa”, “Chocolate com pimenta” and “O Profeta”, on Globo Television Network, leader in audience. Faro has been at Rede Record since 2008, having already presented the shows “Ídolos”, “A Fazenda” and “O Melhor do Brasil”, in addition to what he currently conducts. As a presenter, Rodrigo Faro has been awarded several times, including the Press Trophy, in which he received five statuettes. Graduated in Radio and TV from the University of São Paulo (USP), married and father of three daughters, Faro is considered one of the richest Brazilian presenters, with assets higher than R$ 100 million.

Thus, in the campaign, the use of what is not new in commercials and advertising materials in our country can be seen: the exploration of the figure of the famous, usually in a prominent context and as a representation of overcoming and success. The consideration of this subject is due, in DA, to Psychoanalysis, one of the three bases of theory, since

[...] by shifting the notion of man to that of subject, it contributes to DA, while discursive studies seek to understand language as an event and not just a structure, thus, by bringing together the latter and event, the form material is seen as the event of the signifier in a subject affected by history (AMORIM, 2015, p. 15, 16).

Thus, the characteristics and historical-ideological contexts of the enunciators cannot be omitted. And these representations are beyond what is apparent and what is intended to be real. Rodrigo Faro assumes, in this context, the role of Subject of Discourse - which is different from Individual. In this analysis, in Pêucheux (1997), we understand that, differently from what can be understood at first, the expression “discourse” is much more than the mere transmission of information from one point to another; it needs to be conceived as a relation of different meanings between these two points, which can be apprehended from historical and social references. The theorist emphasizes that, in this conception, subject and individual are not synonymous; while the latter indicates a particularity, individuality, the former represents exactly what should be considered in an analysis: the expression resulting from an instance that is, in its essence, collective and social.

Thus, the place occupied by the subject assumes a prominent role in the discourses. It is this place, with its socio-historical expressions, that reaffirm the characteristics of those who integrate the discourse and sentences who can say what; in which situations; directed to what. The subject momentarily occupies a strategic position, from which he speaks in the name of a structure that, as misunderstood and not contemplated as it is, exposes, through discursiveness, a certain ideology. Whoever occupies one place may occupy another at a different time; may come back to it or not.

The choice by the artist is not casuistry, as well as the selection of so many famous people who sell their images to advertising campaigns of different categories. His images refer to characteristics, present in the memory of the person receiving the message, about the celebrities. Among the aspects linked to them, we can highlight fame, success and, in a way, power. The greater the identification of the public with the enunciating subject, the stronger the bond and mirroring becomes, essential conditions for convincing a given cause.

It is important to emphasize the fact that Faro does not speak in a personal, impartial and independent condition. Although the subject of the discourse sometimes thinks that he acts in a free way, as Pêcheux (1997) said, he is, in a way, subject, through what he calls interpellation. In a way, it starts to be conducted in the service of a certain situation, defined as the ideological instance.

This context of lack of control over the condition of social representation with a certain function is named by Pêcheux and Fuchs (1990, p. 177) as “subjective illusion of the subject”. Despite believing to be one and the source of saying, it actually represents a collective and ideological construction which it serves. In the specific case of the image and mirroring before the figures of the famous, almost always considered occupants of a level that, at the same time it seems utopian, becomes a place of desire. We also emphasize that what is being said by these subjects is not new and does not shape, at the time of enunciation, the understanding that one has about themes such as the lives of celebrities, success and fame. All this has been explored at some point and even by other means, although not understood. This situation was indicated in DA as forgetfulness 1, by which, as explained by Orlandi (2005, p. 36), the subjects

[...] they “forget” what has already been said - and this is not a voluntary forgetting - so that, when identifying themselves with what they say, they constitute themselves as subjects. This is how their words acquire meanings, this is how they signify themselves by taking up words that already exist as if they originated in them, and this is how senses and subjects are always in motion, they always mean in many and varied ways. Always the same, but at the same time, always others.

Based on the DA authors, there is also the so-called “referential illusion”, which indicates the erroneous belief, held by the subject, that what is going to be said has only one sense/meaning. In this process, there is a rupture in the understanding of the relationships established between thought, language and the world, considering them as something unidirectional and static. It is the confusion generated by the selection of what to say and what not to say; between the said and the unsaid. On this mat, there are expressed meanings that one wants to keep and others that one wants to express.

This forgetting is denominated number 2, characterized by Pêcheux as an illusion of the reality of thought, of the order of the preconscious, of the order of enunciation, a partial forgetting. Therefore, the subject is always situated in a time, in a place, embedded in a certain group, linked to a certain culture, which will be revealed in his speech (AMORIM, 2015, p. 21).

Thus, what are the discursive regularities that lead the artist to occupy a prominent space in the discourse? In other words, which attributes does Faro have to be positioned as a personality that encourages higher education in a given institution? Let's try to answer this question. We have already explored that access to education, and more precisely to higher education, is historically and socially understood as a privilege. Furthermore, as highlighted by Chauí (1980), the purposes attributed to higher education in Brazil are linked to immediate results, mainly in terms of returns (especially the financial one). In this way of thinking, we may state that the motivation to study (or the belief in it) has considered more the ends than the means. The Brazilian celebrity mentioned represents, therefore, success and career advancement, even though he has not studied at the institution, much less in the distance modality, about which he starts talking. Then, he does so due to a temporary condition. This is the place occupied by the subject within a Discursive Formation, named by Pêcheux (1997) the subject-form. It is through the occupation of this space that the subject becomes part of a certain Discursive Formation, which, at the same time it represents an identification to him, it makes use of his materiality for the realization.

In addition to the artist's figure, it is important to reflect on the profiles of the other characters explored by the materials. For so, we highlight aspects of each of the five videos.

In the first production, there is the exploration of the story of João, who appears to be under 30 years old and who completed high school at a regular age, at 18 years old. According to his statements, the main motivation for him to enter higher education was the need to increase his training in order to get a place in the labor market. Before that, his life was limited to non-professional activities. He sometimes appears in representation, playing video games in his house. The idea of ​​choosing DE came from a conversation with a friend, who was already studying for the modality.

Throughout the text, João reinforces supposed facilities of the distance modality, including the monthly fee, on which he claims to be able to “pay well”. With these facilities, the character says he “had no excuses”, “he had to study”. As a result, he got an internship and then an executive teller post at a bank.

In the second video, the story of Carla is explored. Here, the highlight is the financial difficulties of the character, who appears to be just over 30 years old. In her speech, Carla emphasizes that, being poor, she had to work as a cleaner from an early age and that the dream of getting a degree seemed distant, which was reinforced, according to her, by her mother's speech, for whom “study is for those who have money ”.

Once again, we see a change in perspective and improvements in living conditions after higher education at the institution. The character reports that she graduated in Administration, was able to buy a house, a car and offer a better life to her family. She ends the video saying she “has won in life”.

In the third video of the sequence, the trajectory explored is that of Juliana, apparently, a mother of two and who was unable to study in person, because of the need to dedicate herself to her family. With DE, she said she was able to make her schedule, study at home and graduate. As a result, she earned the position of social worker at the largest hospital in the city where she lives.

Cleiton's story is featured in the penultimate campaign material. Here, once again, we see the highlight of financial difficulties. The character says that he worked at the fair, woke up at dawn and, because of all the difficulties, he finished basic education late. He had the dream of working in the area of ​​beauty, but without higher education, according to him, he could only get opportunities with low wages. After getting to know Unopar and studying “Personal Beauty and Image” in the distance modality, reconciling his daily activities with academic ones, he became a hair therapist, claiming to be an accomplished professional.

In the fifth and final video of the campaign, we find the story of Ricardo, a man over 50, married for 30 years and father of three. He says that the dream of having a higher education course was postponed for a long time and that Unopar was the door that opened for the realization of that desire. He highlights higher education as something more in his life and career. He also highlights aspects related to his academic trajectory, such as the possibility of making many friends and having a better life. Only in this material does mention of difficulties in the training process appear. Graduated in Marketing, Ricardo ends the video with a language quite different from that used at other times, which can be exemplified by the term buddy, an informal affectionate treatment.

From this, we identified five profiles of students to be covered by distance education, according to the materials: 1) a young person who is not clear about what to do with his life in the professional aspect; 2) a young woman, black and poor, who needs to work to help her family; 3) a mother who cannot study in person because she needs to take care of her children and the house; 4) a young man forced to work in difficult jobs because he has no higher education; and 5) a man who has a dream of studying, but who postponed his dream to help his children.

We notice that these profiles, somewhat anonymous, contrast with the image of the artist Rodrigo Faro, who appears in the materials, reinforcing that success only occurs in the lives of those who act like the characters, in the search for the fulfillment of their dreams. We emphasize that the material is not intended to represent João, Carla, Juliana, Cleiton and Ricardo, in their personal and individual characteristics, but rather from what they represent socially, in order to generate the identification between these characters and the enunciators. Faro's image of success is the place you want to reach. The characters' image is the image of who is on the path to success, prominence and recognition.

This overcoming discourse is not new in our society. It is part of a consensual design and, therefore, is explored in materials like this. Such devices can be conditioning factors for the activation of discursive memory, based on the existing file on a given subject. For DA theory, there is an approximation, or even equivalence, between what has already been said and discursive memory. There is, therefore, a constant relationship between what is being said, at a certain time and in a certain place, with what has already been said and experienced/witnessed in other adverse conditions. The networks of memories - responsible for rescuing what has already been stated -, however, alongside the Discursive Formations (DF), are not mere repetitions. They are constantly reconfigured from different historical and social paths (ORLANDI, 2005).

All materials analyzed here follow a very similar structure, which can be understood in four acts: 1) Presentation of the profile and difficulties of each character; 2) Knowledge of Unopar's DE as an alternative, a novelty; 3) Action, with the support of friends and/or family, for education; 4) Financial, professional and personal reward as a result. Regarding the profile of the characters, we have already explored how much such resources are exploited to get closer to the enunciatee. The presentation of the modality - which, in all cases, was unknown - can be understood based on the appreciation of what is new. Through Bauman (1999), it is possible to understand that valuing what is new is a characteristic of the consumer society - in which consumerism plays a relevant role. For him, desiring for what is new is even stronger than the desire for the merchandise itself. We reinforce we are guided by the understanding that education is a material good, commodified in capitalist societies, since it acquires an exchange value, and also considering that higher education is dominated, as we have seen, by the private sector, in which are the profit motives.

The action to earn a degree is portrayed, in most cases, as being easier than that observed in another modality. The feeling is that studying at distance is simple, does not take time and represents the solution to many problems. This generates a certain myth of ease. However, the fact that evasion in DE is greater than in the face-to-face modality (ABED, 2018) is masked or negleted, which indicates that the ease preached by the commercial is not reflected in reality. In DA, the meaning of a speech is not seen as something ready and finished, much less transparent. For Pêcheux (1997), there is a certain illusion in relation to what is seen, said and heard, which can only be overcome through an analysis that takes the place of the subject of discourse as reference. Thus, a statement should not be conceived as complete, as this consists of superficiality. Language only generates meaning(s) because it constitutes an element inserted in a social, historical and ideological context. Pêcheux (1997), in this regard, emphasizes that the discourse is something opaque, which depends on the structure and the event for its strength.

In this process, not only what is said needs to be considered. What was left unsaid so that a given utterance could be exposed also makes up the discursive movement and deserves attention. It is the consideration of silence, which in DA occupies a prominent place, since it is necessary not to say in order to say.

As highlighted by Orlandi (1995, p. 70), the “hypothesis from which we started is that silence is the condition for the production of meaning. Thus, it appears as the 'differential' space of meaning: a place that allows language to signify”. The author explains that, for there to be meanings in what a language says, there must be a counterpoint, named by her the “other” or “different” place, which is nothing more than silence in relation to what one wants to highlight. At the moment of enunciation, a choice has to be made about what to say. From this perspective, silence is understood as the excluded element, so that a certain contrary statement finds meaning.

Also according to Orlandi (1995), there are at least two types of silence in the discursive process. In this typology, the first model is named the founding, which represents the fact that silence is related to words. Here, it configures as the unsaid, creating possibilities for multiple interpretations and meanings. The second type is named the policy of silence by the author and is divided into two subtypes: the constitutive one, which indicates that there are nullifications between some words and others, and the local one, which represents the prohibitions and limitations existing in certain situations.

That is why we distinguish between a) the founding silence, which exists in words, which means the unsaid and which gives space for significant retreat, producing the conditions to signify and b) the policy of silence that is subdivided into b1) constitutive silence, which indicates that to say it is necessary not to say (one word necessarily erases the other words) and b2) local silence, which refers to censorship itself (what is forbidden to say in a certain situation) (1995, p. 24).

Finally, in all materials, success appears as an immediate and sure end for those who have a college degree. The discourse that reinforces, with other words, what has already been said or is conceived in some group, can be understood, in DA, as a paraphrastic process. However, for a deep understanding of the discourses, the opposite process, the polysemy, which, according to Orlandi (2005), consists of the slippage of meanings, must be considered; these allow us to question the veracity and validity of the discourses.

By pointing out the right and quick return to those who have a higher education, the materials leave gaps for critical inquiries about data on graduates in some higher education course. By preaching the guarantee of professional success from enrollment, for example, the campaign neglects the reality that a third of graduates in some higher education in Brazil are unemployed, generating a certain illusion, given that this reality cannot be overcome simply by linking to a HEI, but from the treatment of social, economic and historical causes.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

In the formulation of the different discourses we have highlighted so far, there are affiliations to certain ideological formations regarding distance education, such as the conceptions of students, higher education, democracy, knowledge, etc. Thus, considering the understanding that a discursive memory occurs from the relationship established by the interdiscourse and the intradiscourse, as postulated by Orlandi (2005), some thematic axes/paths may represent the materialization of the discourses explored so far, from paraphrastic and/or polysemic (re)formulations. Such definitions, which we explore below, contribute to the delimitation of certain DF.

The first discursive path we highlight as one of the regularities present in/among the analyzed materials is the exploration of distance education as a stepping stone to success (mainly in the professional aspect). Visual, textual and sound resources frequently contribute to present this type of teaching, to the enunciatee, as an unmissable opportunity for those who want to be successful. This path appears materialized in the figure of the artist, who puts himself in the position of enunciator recommending the modality, since what is at stake are his images and the imaginary formations that are formed from them, almost always related to success, to wealth and professional satisfaction; and in overcoming and changing life, expressed from ex-student characters through testimonies, representations by which difficulties are considered part of the process and need to be overcome at any cost;

The second path that deserves to be highlighted concerns the understanding of distance education as a financial opportunity for access to higher education, with an emphasis on the low price of enrollment/tuition fees.

Another path that should be noted is the myth of how easy it is to study through DE, in comparison with the face-to-face modality. This aspect is materialized in the indications of possibilities to study only in their spare time, going to the face-to-face support center a few times, reconciling daily tasks with studies, having more free time to have fun and relax, among others.

In the speeches of the analyzed commercials, the discursive path is about the academic space as one of privilege, to which must have acess those who, by their efforts, deserve to conquer these environments.

Such paths are pointed out from a certain regularity of exploration in the discourses of the materials that make up the corpus of analysis. They relate through inter and intradiscourse, through paraphrastic or polysemic processes, and, at the same time as they determine certain DFs, they express these same formations, which are linked to ideological formations present and agreed upon in a given period in society. In other words, they contribute to the understanding of how distance education is thought, considered, communicated and explored.

As gestures of understanding from the work, and more specifically from the analysis, we express that we consider the expansion of distance education as a legitimate and beneficial movement to the democratization of access to higher education. However, it seems to us that there is a mismatch in the speed of development of the modality in public and private HEIs. Those, maintained by the Government, have shown a timid or retiring performance, while these, marked by marketing aspects, compete for the attention and loyalty of students/customers, considering that the field already represents 21.2% of enrollments in the last level of education (an increase of more than three times in ten years) and with a view to continued growth estimates, which predict that by 2023, DE will have more students than the face-to-face modality.

In this context, in which advertising assumes a prominent role, many messages, related to the discursive regularities observed, are unfaithful to the ideals that justified/justify the formalization and recognition of distance education, as well as its qualitative development. When preaching the guarantee of professional success from enrollment, for example, such materials neglect the reality that one third of graduates in some higher education in Brazil are unemployed, generating a certain illusion, considering that this reality cannot be overcome simply by linking to a HEI, but from the treatment of social, economic and historical causes.

Likewise, making courses cheaper, at the same time that may influence the quality of teaching, is based on very massive aspects to reduce costs. Thus, financial profits are preserved and continue to rise, year after year, which attracts the attention of investors, who, before worrying about qualitative training, can enhance the quantitative evaluative aspects, in order to remain active.

In addition, it is worth mentioning, the massification of DE courses, much more vehemently than that observed in the face-to-face modality, can generate a certain leveling between what is a course/training aimed at more privileged classes and those less favored, reinforcing a problem that, as we have seen, has historically marked Brazil: the differences in the treatment of social strata.

The speeches also lead to a decontextualized understanding that it is easy to study at distance and that such action requires less dedication than the face-to-face modality. This creates the idea of complying with merely formal aspects to obtain a degree. This false idea contributes to the academic dropout in DE courses being even twice as high as that identified in face-to-face courses, since, when faced with reality, a significant portion of students feel lacking in essential characteristics for students of this modality. In addition, the view of distance education as a channel of access to a privileged location reinforces, once again, the historical conception that higher education serves to highlight differences between groups, classes and ideologies.

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* The translation of this article into English was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais - FAPEMIG - through the program of supporting the publication of institucional scientific journals

3Data collected from the institution's website, accessible at http://unoparead.com.br/.

Received: August 20, 2019; Accepted: January 21, 2021

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