Introduction

This article presents a study about the history of the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) that develops in Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) that started in the end of 1980 and exists nowadays. Along these years, the EJA has been undervalued in Brazil, being usually seen as an emergency measure, subsidiary, turned to young and adults “unabled” that did not attend school when they were children, or abandoned their studies. However, in the last 30 years, some advances occurred in this field, marking, in a positive way, your route so far.

^{Soares (2016}) points a significant increase of researches and publications related to the subject, and the legal recognition of the rights to the education for young, adults and elderly, occurred from the Federal Constitution of 1988, that establishes the rights of education to all regardless the age. However, today, despite the studies and researches that have been occurring through decades and the legal achievement of this right, there is too much still for the EJA reaches the appreciation and recognition due.

Within this national scenario, by the end of 1980, in the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) it was created the Association of Administrative Servants (ASAV), that already started their actions presenting several claims to the administration, which was part the request of a space for the literacy of those employees of this institution that still remain unknowingly reading and writing, and that represents about 30% of functional board. This claim was studied and met by the University Rectorate in 1987, starting, thus, the development of a Project of Adults Literacy from then on.

Since that time, the project has been expanding their actions having become a consolidated educational space inside the institution and that meets, nowadays, not only UFV servants, but also the community of Viçosa that did not have access schooling or could not finish their studies in childhood and adolescence. Besides that, has become a Centre, and nowadays constitutes as a space of teacher training for graduates of different graduation courses of UFV. This space is called Adult Education Center (NEAd) and it is under the coordination of the Education Department, working in its own headquarters, inside the UFV campus. In this Centre act about ten trainees per year, this assumes as base for their teaching practice the Freirean assumptions.

The NEAd completed in 2017, thirty years of existence, having as main goals to literate and educate young, adult and elderly learners of the viçosense community, as well as provide UFV trainees a complementary to the teacher training in the EJA modality. Thus, in a deep analysis of the work developed, a question arises that will direct this present study: What is the history of young and adults education in UFV and what is the meaning of NEAd existence within its institution?

In order to reflect and answer this question, it was made a research that has as main objective the rescue of NEAd’s history through the research of academic works developed about the subject, and also the query to the files of the Centre. Based on the proposed objectives, this study constitutes in a qualitative research that were developed, therefore, through a documental analysis. As research instruments were used the documents that appears in the Secretary of the Adult Education Center and all the TTC that were already produced in UFV about this. The choice of documental analysis was based on the written document to build an important source for the researcher in the social sciences. About this, Cellard explains that:

She is evidently irreplaceable in any rebuilding referring to a past relatively far because it is not rare that it represents almost all traces of human activity at certain times. Besides that, very often she remained as only witness of private activities occurred in a recent past (^{CELLARD, 2008}, p. 295)

Thus, to reach the objective to rescue the NEAd history along its thirty years of existence it was made a documental analysis of the following conclusion works of graduation courses (TTCs) and monographies of course completion of Lato Sensu Postgraduate:

Also were analyzed the following documents of NEAd files:

The history of adult education at the Federal University of Viçosa

The project of adult education of the Federal University of Viçosa, today transformed in an Adult Education Center-NEAd went through a certain trajectory until being named as Centre. ^{Pinto (2000}), tells that in October, 1984 it was made in UFV, the first General Assembly of the Administrative Servers Association (ASAV), with the presence of servants and authorities of the institution. In this Assembly, the need to create a literacy project was discussed to attend the servants of the University that did not have access schooling before its admission. In that time, 30% of the servants were illiterate or semi illiterate, which corresponds to 1.000 servants.

This observation of illiteracy inside UFV, a higher education institution took a significative dimension and, in 1985, it was target of a report by the university employees. In 1986, the Rector Geraldo Martins Chaves attended the claim of these servants, authorizing the work release for these employees, for two hours daily to be literate. From then on, it was started the Basic Education Project and Adult Literacy, in a partnership between the Association of Administrative Servers (ASAV) , Department of Education(DPE) and Educational Support Unit(UAE) from UFV (NEAd’s REGIMENT, 2011).

In 1987, they started the activities and the Teacher Euclides Redim, in that time was the boss from DPE, assumed the coordination of the project, remaining until December, 1989 (^{PINTO, 2000}). During the first three years, the classes occurred in classrooms granted by the University Teaching and Extension Center (CEE/UFV). The classes were heterogeneous formed by some students that had never been to school and some that already have some schooling, which made difficult the trainee’s work.

In 1990, the project expanded their acting, becoming, besides a teaching place to employees, a research space for teachers and students of the Pedagogy course from UFV. In that time, in the period between 1989 to 1992, the Department of Education teacher Lucíola Santos was in charge of coordinator of the project. According to ^{Pinto (2000}), during the teacher’s coordination there was an innovation in the work developed, being given to the project a research character with the development of studies about EJA. These happen through works developed by trainees along with the learners of the project. Soon, in that same year, it was created a study group about adult literacy and it started to develop researches about the topic, with the aid of scholarships from Scholarship Program for Scientific Initiation.

Later, in the beginning of 1993, the coordination went to the teacher Rosemarie Costa, which coordinated the project until 1995 (^{PINTO, 2000}). In 1993, this coordinator acquired resources that allowed her to set up a headquarters. In this same period, the UFV was passing through the process of emptying and retaking the houses of the Vila Gianetti loaned so far to the living of teachers from the University. These houses, as they were being unoccupied, they began to house projects and agencies of the institution. So, it was requested to the Rectory, an authorization of using from one of the houses to the development of the Literacy project, being this allowed. Since then, the project started to work on the house 33 of Vila Gianetti, which remains until now. In the meantime, the Adult Education Project expanded its service, offering also, preparation courses to elementary school exams (^{MESQUITA, 2011}).

In the 1995 and 1996, the course was coordinated by another teacher from the Department of Education, Maria das Graças Floresta. ^{Pinto (2000}) explains that the course attended, in that time about 90 students per year, enrolled in classes of the first segment of Elementary School. In mid-1995, from student demands, the project started to offer also, some classes of the second segment of Elementary School. A few years later were open classes for high school exam preparation classes. As a result of its growth, the Project changed its name to Adult Education Center-NEAd.

In the beginning of 1997, I assumed the coordination of NEAd replacing the teacher Maria das Graças that turned away from the activities to attend the doctorate course. In the beginning of my coordination I started to do weekly meetings with the trainees, because I needed to know and understand the organization of teaching process in order to provide them a proper training, discussing possible solutions to minimize problems in the teaching process.

^{Pinto (2000}) points that among the difficulties of work, the long remaining of some students in the Centre, given to the slowness in the learning process. Such fact opened up for malicious insinuations about NEAd as for example, there was student disengagement with their learning. As a way to solve this situation, I looked to integrate DPE teachers to the work of the Center, creating the Area Coordinations, so they could guide the trainees about the didactics and specific methodologies to the teaching of each subject.

After ten years of coordination, I needed to turn away from the job to do the PhD, and the coordination of the Center was assumed by another DPE teacher, Etelvina in the period from 2007 to 2009. In the end of 2009, assumed for a few months the teacher Wania, and shortly thereafter, in 2010, the teacher Edgar that kept in this commitment until I resumed the job in March, 2011.

Over the thirty years of existence, the NEAd expanded and has been developing a work of adult education, involving not only UFV employees but also all the viçosense community. The Center works in its own headquarters and it has an Administrative support team, composed by a Secretary that is responsible by the patrimony and organization of all documentation, by the operational support to the activities developed by the trainees and by a Technician in Educational Affairs that is responsible for the pedagogical support to the coordination and the trainees, in the development of their activities and by the monitoring of the learners in the learning process (NEAd’s REGIMENT, 2011).

The Centre attends a public from 100 to 120 students per year, encompassing the Literacy, Elementary School, High School and Digital Inclusion, and counting with the participation of undergraduates from several courses, such as Pedagogy, Languages, Math, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Dance, Physical Education and Computing, that under the guidance from the coordination of the Centre taking charge of the classes. The main objective of NEAd nowadays it is not focused anymore on literacy and schooling the adult learner, but also to provide the trainees moments of study and reflexions about the Young and Adults, constituting, therefore, in space of formation of learners in the EJA modality.

In this context, the theoretical principles that underlie the Pedagogical Proposal of the Centre are based on the philosophy of the educator Paulo Freire, prioritizing the dialogue between the educator and the learner, the freedom of speech and the socialization of the individuals involved in the action as well as the adequacy of school contents to the characteristics of popular classes.

The Center of Adult Education of The Federal University of Viçosa (NEAD/UFV) nowadays

By consulting the list of coordinators, trainees and learners from NEAd, we found that a total of eight teachers of the Department of Education went through the coordination so far, and from 1998 to 2018, the Center had 312 trainees and 2630 learners (Table 1). The consulted list about the number of trainees and the number of learners refers only to the period from 1998 to 2018. Thus, we found an imprecision about the number of trainees and learners previous to this period, not having any other document that provide the information from previous years.

Most of trainees of the Centre are female (80%) with the age varying between 20 and 38 years old. We found that, still that the Academic Formation of these trainees is majority in Pedagogy, having also, in minor number, undergraduates in Languages, Math, History and Geography. The time they act in the Centre varies between one and three years. These trainees act in literacy classes, Portuguese Language. History, Geography and Math in Elementary and High School, such as Digital Inclusion.

The teaching experience lived by the trainees in the Centre allows them to develop actions turned to cognitive needs of young and adult learners, seeking to make their experiences enjoyable and lead them to acquire significant knowledge. Besides that, in relation to the challenges faced by trainees during their teaching experiences, we identified that such challenges are daily and differs according to the period that each trainee develops their activities in the Center.

To the trainees that acted in the beginning of the Center existence, the challenges were evidently, more specific in relation to the NEAd organization and structure, as well as the lack of employees and educational infrastructure to the EJA classes could happen. Possibly, these factors led to the trainees a certain discomfort in the realization of teaching work. In another way, to the trainees that acted in a recent period of NEAd, the challenges ruled in the students’ dropouts, the lack of resources and aspects related to these students involving age, difficulty to reconcile study with the professional and family commitments, low self-esteem and insecurity.

These challenged faced by the NEAd’s trainees are the same faced by the young and adult’s educator in its teaching practice in the public education network. In the teaching practice, the school dropout happens at EJA by different reasons, among them, the lack of specific teaching material, as the materials are often used without undergoing any kind of adaptation; curriculum that does not attend to the reality expectations of these leaners; the lack of support and stimulus by the government agencies, the lack of snacks and transport to these students and the age diversity of learners.

Regarding self-esteem, this is a character of most of the learners from EJA, making that the teacher needs to learn how to deal with it. Also, there is the students’ difficulty to attend school, due to work, familiar and domestic problems, as they need to seek everyday means of subsistence, which absorbs time and energy, making it difficult a continuous attendance at school. In this living, the trainees seek for ways to minimization of the limitations. To the challenge of students ‘dropouts the trainees look to maintain a constant contact with the students that are starting to miss the classes, walking to a dropout. In these contacts, they ask the students about their absences and insist on their return, motivating them to study

By making a rescue of NEAd history, we remembered that, during a few years, the course was destined to the UFV employees, which had service release to do it. However, later, this public was resignifying itself, involving no longer just the UFV employees, but also all the viçosense community. This reconfiguration of public confirms itself when we notice that the Centre passed through several steps in its history, until constitutes as an important space for teacher training inside UFV, mainly regarding the issue of young, adult and elderly education. The actions of the Centre were expanding in a significative way, becoming it in a space of research and formation for student from different graduation courses at UFV.

In the analysis of the documents, other results are noticed in the work developed: the empowerment of the young, adult and elderly learners through this educational experience and constitution of the Centre while space of teacher training to the EJA field. This is due to the main objective of the Centre that in addition to literacy, schooling and formation of social critical awareness of the adult learner, also has as objective to provide the trainees moments of study and reflexions about EJA, constituting in a space of training of educators for this modality. In this sense, ^{Freire (1992}) mentions in his works the issue of empowerment, autonomy and emancipation from a subject, group or institution's perspective that makes for itself, the changes and actions that leads to evolve and strengthen. Still, about the constitution of the Centre as a space for teacher training, ^{Arroyo (2007}, p. 195) affirms to be pertinent “to know more about the teaching which we prepare for would be one to know more formators; it would be the guide for the conformation of the formation curriculum".

In relation to the challenges faced by the Centre’s trainees, we noticed that these take place in the personal and training context. ^{Scarfó (2009}) points that the low self-esteem of the learner, as well as other isolation and expectations attitudes were reduced in the present, due to past happenings lived by him, when added to cultural vulnerability demands the educator a different posture in order to create better conditions for the learning process happens more efficient.

^{Freire (1996}) talks about the need of the educators to create concrete possibilities for production of knowledge become a reality. ^{Gadotti (1996}) adds that we must consider the own reality of the learners because only then will be able to promote the needed motivation to learning, in a way that the same feels more confident and motivated during the construction and knowledge process.

The formation on Pedagogy course although the teachers seek to relate theory and practical living of classroom, it is not enough to let the undergraduates safe while they are in front of a class for the first time. Therefore, it is very important for the educator to have a specific formation to work with EJA, since this teaching modality demands a differentiated methodology and an affective relation between teacher/student; on the opposite, it will happen the strangeness and insecurity by educators. To Libâneo,

the teaching work constitutes the professional exercise of the teacher and this is his first commitment with the society. His responsibility is to prepare the students to become active and participant citizens in the family, at work, in the class associations, in cultural and political life (^{LIBÂNEO, 1992}, p. 47).

^{Machado (2002}) calls the attention to a specificity of the EJA subjects: These are more sensible to the nuances of the school context. Therefore, the authoritarism of some teachers, the afraid of failure and isolation from the colleagues, the tiring due to workday are some of the factors that leads to the interruption of the school path of these learners.

Besides these challenges, own to the EJA’s reality, there are others, such as the difficulty of learners to reconcile their study time with daily activities; the heterogeneity of these referring to age and learning process; the dropout followed by their return and the cognitive difficulties of some. In relation to the heterogeneity of learners, ^{Carbonell (2006}) explains that this is the highest mark in the adults’ education because each learner brings with it singularities-origins, ages, living, values and distinct yearnings.

When it comes to the influence of this living provided by the Centre has in the teacher training of the trainees, we checked that, for them the experience is considered positive, in the sense of provide a higher learning in relation to the teaching practice with a specific audience, that is the EJA students. Such influence occur within the scope of learning to develop a collective work and by the fact of NEAd has become a formation lab. With regard to collectivity aspect, Alonso explains the importance to learn how to work together with others given that it is a necessary condition formation of the citizen in a democratic society. To the author “Collective work is a goal to be pursued by school leaders, since educational work, more than any other, is built by a joint action of the various characters who act in this process.” (^{ALONSO, 2002}, p.25).

Still, about the perceptions about the influences that these livings has in the teacher training of trainees, we can infer that, after the experience to act in the Centre, the undergraduates has the confirmation that they want to be educators, due to the empathy built along the stage. According to ^{Freire ((2000}, p.103),” the climate of respect that arises from just, serious, humble, generous relationships, that the teaching authority and the freedom of the students are ethically assumed, authenticates the formative character of the pedagogical space." This is evidenced by the practical through a complicity process between educator and learners gradually conquered.

In the same way, NEAd makes it possible to try the daily school through planning classes and the daily work frequency, not so common in the other stages offered by the UFV. Be a trainee of the Centre contributes to the formation both professional and personal training, through contact with learners with different realities, and with a perspective of liberating education, linked to education proposals from Paulo Freire that seek to develop the critical conscience in the learners through dialogue and problematizing education.

In a general way, analyzing the TTCs that talks about the perceptions of trainees that went to the Centre during these thirty years of teacher training, we could see that these express the senses and the meanings attributed to their participations over the years, reinforcing the sense of Federal University of Viçosa keep among the countless projects, the Adult Education Center.

In a general way, all the experiences, challenges and perceptions about the job made in the Centre depicted here, serves to reinforce that, despite the difficult starting point of Centre constitution, that needed the effort from union leaders and support from DPE teachers to have minimal conditions of working, this assumed characteristics that goes beyond the education of unschooled employees of UFV and the viçosense community. The Center provides a service to all academic community, by providing to students from Pedagogy and Institution's degrees, a space for formation that offers conditions to act in the future in this teaching modality.

The perceptions of the NEAD trainees in relation to their teaching experience in the center

Through TTCs analysis that talks about the trainees that went through NEAd and their experiences, we can identify their perception about the work that has been developed in the Centre during the period while they acted. Through the constant data in the Centre files about the trainees, as we already mentioned we draw a profile: the majority is female (80%), with ages varying from 24 to 28 years old. The academic formation of these trainees is mostly in Pedagogy, having also in minor number, undergraduates in Languages, Math, History and Geography. The period they act in the Centre varies from one to three years. These trainees acts in classes in Literacy, Portuguese Language, History, geography and Math in Elementary and High School, as well as in Digital Inclusion.

Through this profile, we seek to analyze the perception of trainees that acted in Adult Education Center from Federal University of Viçosa, through their educational experiences in this place. Through an analysis of statements of these trainees in the TTCs we could identify their perception about the work developed. The speeches of these trainees points that work in the Centre allowed them to develop actions turned to cognitive needs of young and adult learners, leading them to seek and to make their experiences pleasurable and acquire significate knowledge in the EJA field. Furthermore, some trainees rescued, in their statements, the historical moment lived in relation to the consolidation of the Centre.

In relation to the challenges faced by the subjects during their teaching experience, already mentioned, we identified being daily and that happened according to the period that each trainee developed its activities in the Centre. For those who acted in the beginning of the Centre existence, the challenges shown more specific in relation to the organization and the NEAd structure. The aspects mentioned were relative to the lack of employees and educational infrastructure for the EJA classes to happen, given the finding of low investments on EJA. This scenario caused them a certain discomfort. in the realization of the teaching work. In other words, to the trainees that acted in a recent period of NEAd, the challenges are guided in the dropout, lack of resources and aspects related to these, involving age, difficulty to reconcile the studies with the familiar and professional commitments, low self-esteem and insecurity.

Based on the trainee’s description, we could notice that the challenges mentioned are the same faced by the young and adults educator in its teaching practice in public education network. In the teaching practice, the school dropout happens at EJA by different reasons, among them the lack of specific courseware since materials are often used without any adaptation; the curriculum, which does not meet the expectations of the reality of these students; the lack of support by government agencies; the lack of snacks and transportation to these students and the age diversity of learners.

Given the challenges presented, the trainees talk about how they face the impasses and some paths are pointed out to minimize these limitations. By the answer of one of these trainees, her way to face the challenge of dropout was to contact the students that were dropping out, questioning them about their absence and insisting for their return. Such statement point for something that is recurrent in EJA classes: the school dropout. It is up to the school, given this situation, to identify the reason that would leading them to evade and look to get close of their reality, fitting their pedagogical projects to their needs.

About the trainees’ perception about the work developed in the Centre, we find in the answers given on the TTCs, all of them had the perception of having developed a good work during this period while they acted in NEAd. When we analyzed the reasons that led them to intern on the Adult Education Center, we checked that these are diverse revolving, mainly around the issue of classroom experience as teachers, teacher training and professional growth. Such glances emphasize about the importance of the teacher or future teacher always seek to improve themselves through new knowledge that contemplates their profession.

Other speeches reveal that, initially, there was no motivation to act in the Centre, but by insistence of some teachers, they found that learn how to work with a totally different public that already had a comprehensive knowledge of the world was very inspiring. ^{Carbonell (2006}) argues that it is important for the adults’ educator to consider the knowledges acquired through their life history. In this sense, one of the trainees points that, beyond the theory that approached EJA, the affectivity relationships with the learners were the main motivation to continue as an educator at NEAd. The teacher’s motivation is a key factor to work with this public. Telfer and Swan suggests that “the problem of the teacher’s motivation lies in the filling of high order needs in a profession, where the career patterns can be limited” (TELFER; SWAN, 1986 apud MOREIRA, 1997, p. 3).

In relation to the challenges faced by the trainees during their act, this expands the personal scope and the formation. Some trainees points that the low self-esteem of the learners generates blocks on their learning process, which turns the teaching work challenging. To ^{Scarfó (2009}), the learner’s low self-esteem, as well as other isolation attitudes and expectations that were reduced in the present, due to past events lived by him, added to cultural vulnerability, demands from the educator a differentiated posture, in order to create better conditions for the learning process of the learner happens effectively.

Besides that, one of the trainees points a resistance by part of the learners as to the methodology used considering that they asked for the traditional teaching and resisted working with concrete materials. The EJA public has a huge differential, which is the cultural and social living they have. In this sense, ^{Freire (1996}) highlights the need of the learners to create the concrete possibilities for the knowledge production becomes a reality. Also in the meantime, ^{Gadotti (1996}) argues that we must consider the own reality of the learners because only then it will be possible to promote the motivation needed during the knowledge construction process.

Finally, in our observations we highlighted that one of the trainees reported she had faced challenges in the personal and formation scope. She explains that, because of her being very shy, she does not feel prepared to the role of teaching. She considered a huge responsibility and studied a lot to prepare the classes. The trainee also argued that the formation in the Pedagogy course although the teachers tried to relate theory and classroom practice, it was not enough to her to feel safe in front of a class for the first time. Through her report, we could notice that how it is important for the learner a specific formation to work with EJA, since this teaching modality demands from the teacher a differentiated methodology and an affective relationship between teacher / student so that no strangeness and insecurity occurs.

Final considerations

The main objective of this present study was to rescue the history of Youth and Adult Education in the Federal University of Viçosa. We analyzed, in summary, the sense of an Adult Education Center for this Institution and for the trainees that had their moments of study, reflexions and academic experiences about the young and adults education. We found that, since 1987 until nowadays, the Adult Education Project of UFV nowadays called Adult Education Center, went through a process that it is currently a space for teacher education in the adult education modality, based on the principles of Paulo Freire, and involving the entire viçosense community.

In relation to the perception of the ex-trainees of NEAd about the work developed in this Centre, we checked that, for them it was a period of much learning, which happened the facing of several challenges related to the school dropouts, the own difficulties of their ages, the difficulty to reconcile study professional and familiar commitments and the low self-esteem of the learners.

Still, in relation to the perception of the trainees about the work developed in the Centre, we checked that all considered a rich teaching experience the period while they remained on NEAd. Another essential point of this study was in relation to the motivation of the trainees to the participation in the Centre having been identified: search for experience as a teacher, teacher training specifically in the modality of EJA, deepening in the theory that underlies teaching practice in EJA and affective relationships with students.

We also identified some challenges faced by the trainees during the intern on the Centre, related to the low self-esteem of the learners; the resistance by part of the learners as to the methodology used; the difficulty to reconcile the study time with the dedication to NEAd; the age and cognitive heterogeneity of the students; the abandonment of classes by these students; the cognitive difficulties of some; and the need to reconcile the demands of supplementary exams with classes that do not focus on the resolution of scheduled exercises.

Regarding influence that these livings provided by the Centre has in the teacher training of each trainee, we identified a significate learning in relation to the teaching practice with such a specific public as the EJA students. These experiences made possible a prolonged daily experience of class regency, which it is not common on the other stages offered by the undergraduate courses.

Through this study, we could infer that the Adult Education Center, during its 30 years of existence went through complex process and needed the support from the management from UFV to the development of its activities. However, although to this day the Centre still faces innumerous structural problems for its working, it has been able to do a differentiated work both in relation to EJA students, through a different methodology as for the trainees who can, in this space, experience moments of study and reflections on the Education of Youth and Adults. Therefore, it constitutes an effective space for teacher education for the EJA modality.