Lecture by Prof. Marise Nogueira Ramos at the Closing of the 8th PROFEPT Seminar

Integral Human Development and the Challenges of Research in Professional and Technological Education

Abstract

The lecture by Prof. Dr. Marise Nogueira Ramos, moderated by Prof. Michele Waltz Comarú, took place during the closing session of the VIII ProfEPT Seminar at Pedro II school, Tijuca campus, in Rio de Janeiro. In her talk, the speaker addressed holistic human development and the challenges of research in Professional and Technological Education (EPT). Marise drew from her personal journey to reflect on how life experiences - especially within the working class and technical education - shape one’s understanding of the school’s role in human formation. She emphasized the importance of labor as an educational principle, linking Marxist assumptions about the production of material, symbolic, and social existence as a foundation for thinking about education. The professor criticized the dominance of exact sciences and the fragmentation of knowledge imposed by technicist educational models, such as those in Law 5692/71 and Decree 2208/97. She advocated for a polytechnic and all-encompassing approach to education. Marise called for the integration of nature and society as a historical unity, proposing that schools should enable students to critically engage with both natural and social laws. For her, comprehensive human development is also an ethical issue, as society already possesses the means to achieve it but often fails to do so. Her lecture was marked by an engaging narrative that intertwined personal experiences, theoretical foundations, and critiques of educational policies - reaffirming a commitment to emancipatory, critical, and transformative education capable of forming individuals who are aware of their historical and social context.