Research and teaching in a diverse institutional environment: Converging values and diverging practices in Brazil

Abstract

This chapter traces some relevant changes in the way research and teaching is performed in Brazilian higher education since the end of 1990s and the end of 2000s. It focuses on exploring how institutional diversity as it is found in Brazilian higher education frames academics engagement on teaching and research. The chapter also explores how much these activities are prized by Brazilian academics in different institutional environment. Results from this analysis show that the efforts, started in the 1970s, to turn the academics in Brazil into researchers have succeeded in part in terms of beliefs, but do not seem to be converging in practice. Today, more than in the past, Brazilian academics believe that they should have a doctoral degree and get involved in research, and the incentives created by the national authorities go in that direction. However, in practice, only a minority of researchers in research institutes and in research-intensive public universities can meet these values and incentives. For the others, the alternative is either to give up, and place more emphasis on teaching, or to make some gestures signalling their adherence to the research ideals-attending conferences, writing research reports, and trying to publish an article every year so. The need to comply with the research ideal, and the instability to do so, is a fertile ground to accommodation and cynicism, which can affect the quality of the missions higher education institutions are supposed to perform-teaching, research, and services.