HIGHER EDUCATION IN AN PANDEMIC CONTEXT

CONTRADICTIONS, TENSIONS AND CONFLICTS

Abstract

Due to the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 and the health measures recommended by the World Health Organization - WHO - to control the disease, around the world, political leaders regulated several restrictive measures, such as the temporary suspension of activities in the most diverse sectors of society, including school and university education. Given this context, this article aims to discuss the process of implementing non-presential teaching activities, in undergraduate courses, conducted through Digital Information and Communication Technologies (TDIC), in a public university in the State of Bahia, in specific, the implications in the demands for teacher training and the technological conditions of the student body. To this end, we conducted research with a qualitative approach, exploratory and descriptive. As instruments for data production, we used observation and a virtual questionnaire, with open and closed questions, for the student body of one of the undergraduate courses. Allied to this, we analyzed some documents, such as decrees, resolutions, communiqués, among other sources. As a result, we can point out that teachers and students faced the most diverse difficulties to handle the activities carried out through the TDIC, among which we highlight: insufficiencies regarding the training to use these resources, the equipment used and the internet network, causing dissatisfaction, anxiety, anguish and adaptation of the domestic routine to studies that suddenly “invaded their home”.