Ética em pesquisa nos cursos de graduação em pedagogia: estudo de casos em universidades públicas de Alagoas

Abstract

For nearly 20 years, graduate-level work in the field of education has discussed ethics in research. Undergraduate programs offer various research opportunities, and this study investigates whether the topic of research ethics is addressed in undergraduate Pedagogy courses. Few studies address ethics in Educational Research within initial formative settings. The general objective of this doctoral research was to investigate how the topic of research ethics is presented in undergraduate Pedagogy courses at public universities in Alagoas. Specifically, we aimed to identify the presence of the ethics theme in institutional documents, in notes regarding ethical considerations in research taken by students in their Final Course Papers (TCC), and to record teachers' views on the presence of the topic throughout the Pedagogy program. This is a qualitative research study, characterized as applied, exploratory, and with a cross-sectional design. To ensure the validity of the study, we used data triangulation: a) documents, such as Pedagogical Course Projects (PPC), records of Academic Scientific Activities (ACC), and institutional regulations related to TCC; b) academic production, specifically TCCs from 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; and c) a virtual questionnaire completed by 44 teachers. The cases in this study are online Pedagogy courses recognized by the MEC [Ministry of Education and Culture], affiliated with public institutions, and in operation for over ten years in Alagoas. Analysis of the documents, reading of the TCCs, and records from teachers allow us to assert that the topic of ethics is scarcely mentioned in the undergraduate Pedagogy program. We confirm the thesis that in public undergraduate Pedagogy courses in Alagoas, the topic of research ethics is rarely mentioned in PPCs, curricular units, in TTC guiding documents and 53% of students from institutions that do not have Research Ethics Committee (CEP) do not register ethical care in the TCC. We do not register institutional normative documents regarding research ethics. This study is considered relevant as it may contribute to the initial training of teachers and prompt educational institutions to present the topic in an educational dimension, enabling a genuinely ethical formation of researchers even during their undergraduate Pedagogy studies.