The Social Work Graduate Program (PPGSS), from the Institute of Applied Social Sciences (ICSA), Federal University of Pará (UFPA) is made up of the Master’s and Doctoral Academic Courses in Social Work. The first one, established in 1996, was recognized by CAPES through Resolution 3166 / CONSEP, dated 05/03/2004, and approved by Ordinance No. 2878 / CNE, of 08/24/2005. The second was recognized by CAPES, as of 2017, through administrative rule no. 655, published in D.O.U. 05/22/2017. The creation of the Master's and Doctoral Degree has as a challenge to contribute to the strengthening of a critical mass of intellectuals in the area of Social Work, capable of developing studies and research, interpreting and responding to expressions of the "social question" in the Amazon region.
For the composition of the PPGSS faculty formed by Social Work professionals, in 2000, this Program established a cooperation agreement with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), when they were approved to study the Doctorate of the School of Social Work of said institution, 06 (six) professors, linked to the Faculty of Social Work of UFPA. As of 2006, 04 (four) of these Doctors entered the faculty already existing in the PPGSS / UFPA, performing research, teaching and orientation activities to the students of the Program. During this time, the PPGSS / UFPA formed a proper and stable framework of professors that contributed to its organicity.
The first dissertation of the Master's Degree in Social Work-PPGSS / UFPA was defended in 1998, after two years of creation of the course and, in the last 20 years, this program has granted the title of Master to 222 students, which comprises an average of 11 dissertations produced each year, revealing reduced dropout and an expressive number of Masters in Social Work, with potential for the verticalization of the process of continuing training at the Doctoral level. These data show the consolidation of the aforementioned Graduate Program at UFPA and its importance for the Brazilian Social WorkWork, particularly in the Amazon region.
The studies and the researches of the students of the Master’s Course in Social Work from 1998 to 2017, who made possible their respective dissertations, contemplate a diversity of topics concerning the expressions of the "social question" and Social Work, namely: Work, Social Policies, Public Policies and Urban and Agrarian Issues and Social Works, Social Security and Social Work Policy, Generational Issues and Social Works, Social/Grassroot Movements and Social Works, Environmental and Social Work Policy, Gender Issues, Sexuality andSocial Work, Violence and Social Work, Race / Ethnicity and Social Work etc.
The set of dissertations produced has as a locus of research, in addition to Belem, capital of the state of Pará, several municipalities of Pará (Ananindeua, Castanhal, Barcarena, Cametá, Souba, Abaetetuba, Moju, Santarém, Vigia, Capanema, Carajás, Colares, Curuçá, Igarapé Miri, Marabá, Marituba, Porto de Moz, São Geraldo do Araguaia, Santo Antônio do Tauá Salinópolis, Inhangapi and Tomé Açu). The surveys also include other states of the Legal Amazon (Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão and Tocantins) and, more recently, other countries, namely Haiti, Costa Rica and Honduras due to the origin of the masters and doctoral students.
Based on a survey carried out in the Curriculum Lattes of the PPGSS / UFPA graduates, corresponding to the period between 2013 and 2017, it is generally observed that PPGSS / UFPA alumni perform their activities in federal, state and municipal public bodies and mainly in the area of Social Security (Social Assistance, Health and Social Security), Education, Work, Housing / Urbanism and others. It should be mentioned that several graduates were approved by public tender for the position of social worker and many act as technicians or directors of social projects. A significant number of graduates of the Master’s and Doctoral program in Social Work (around 30%) hold magisterial positions in a private and public higher education institution such as: Federal University of Pará / UFPA (University Campus of UFPA / Breves-Pará ), State University of Pará-UEPA, Federal University of ABC Paulista, Federal University of Tocantins Campus Araguaína-UMA / UFT. Of this percentage, a significant number of graduates are registered as professors in Private Social Work Faculties, such as: Amazon Metropolitan Faculty / FAMAZ, Faculdade da Amazônia / FAMA, Ideal College / FACI, Paulista University / UNIP (Polo Belém ), Faculdade Pitágoras / Imperatriz-MA, Institute of Higher Education of the South of Maranhão / IESMA / UNISULMA, besides the Regional Electoral Court-TRE. In addition, graduates of the Master's degree are approved in Doctoral Programs of several higher education institutions in Brazil, such as PUC / São Paulo, Federal University of ABC Paulista, University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). (NAAS), Sociology and Anthropology Graduate Programs at UFPA (PPGSA), Education Graduate Program (PPGED) and Economics Graduate Program at UFPA (PPGE).
It should also be pointed out that PPGSS / UFPA graduates (around 15%) are identified in several social and occupational spaces of the Social Work profession and in other related areas, namely: high school teachers of the Department of Education State / SEDUC / PA and the Pro-Young Urban Program of the Education Department of the Municipality SEMEC / Belém / PA; technician at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA); technician at the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA); professionals working in Non-Governmental Organizations outside the State of Pará; technical advisor of the Government of the State of Maranhão and social workers inserted in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia of Pará, Hospital Militar / SP and Specialized Center in Rehabilitation.
In 2016 the selection process for the first group of the PhD course in Social Work / PPGS / UFPA was carried out. It is important to note that the PPGSS and the Social Work Graduate Program and Sustainability in the Amazon, Federal University of Amazonas / UFAM with the Academic Master's degree are the only ones in the area of knowledge in Social Work existing in the entire North region of Brazil.
As far as academic cooperation is concerned, in 2004-2007 the program developed the Project "Management of public policies in the Amazon", in cooperation with UFRJ and financed by CNPq - CT-INFRA / PDACT, and enabled academic debates among the researchers involved in the project and the structuring of study and research groups linked to the PPGSS, as well as the acquisition of computers and printers for the assembly of the computer lab for the students of the Program. From when this cooperation took place on, action in partnership with researchers linked to the CNRS (France), in particular, with the researchers Thierry Boudoin and Michelli Collin.
In 2008, PPGSS-UFPA established international cooperation through the Working Group on Research and Development in the Amazon with the University of Alicante (Spain), with the project: "Rural development, preservation of the environment and protection of heritage in rural areas through trends and perspectives in Brazil and Spain. "
In 2010, new academic cooperation with the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) through the National New Frontier Academic Cooperation Program (PROCAD), funded by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), with the project entitled "Question Social and Social Rights in the Amazon and in the Northeast". In 2015, the PPGSS / UFPA advanced in its internationalization process. This year, a Cooperation Project was developed with the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto, Portugal, in conjunction with the Graduate Program of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). This was attended by the professors: Virgílio Borges, a professor of the mentioned Institute, who was in Belém for a week, funded by the Program of Support to International Cooperation (PACI) of UFPA and Professor Ana Elizabete Mota (UFPE). This Project was submitted to the General Program of International Cooperation (CAPES) and was not approved.
Using the PACI, in the year 2017, another International Cooperation Project was developed between the PPGSS / UFPA and the Lisbon - Portugal Institute under the coordination of Professor Adriana Azevedo Mathis, who traveled to Lisbon for a week, also funded by the mentioned program. This cooperation resulted in the research project Family Policies Directed for the Reconciliation of Professional Work and Family Work of the Female Head of Family in Brazil and Portugal. The project was sent to compose the UFPA proposal submitted to the Institutional Program for Internationalization (PrInt / Capes 41/2017), whose objective was to encourage the internationalization of higher education institutions (IES), as a way of increasing the impact of academic production and scientific research carried out within the framework of postgraduate programs. The Project was also not approved, however, this Project will be presented to a research promotion agency in Portugal, given the interest of the Lisbon Institute in the implementation of the cooperation. This Institute accepted the faculty of the PPGSS-UFPA, Cilene Sebastiana da Conceição Braga, to carry out its Post-Doctoral Program on the theme of the Project, during the period 2018-2019.
A proposal for International Cooperation with the University of Havana and PPGSS / UFPA has been under way since 2016. By the way, it is recorded that one of the first results of this cooperation was the acceptance of the student of the Doctoral course in Social Work, Rita de Cássia Barbosa, to do a Sandwich Doctorate in that University, since it was selected by means of the Edital of the Doctoral Program Sandwich Abroad (PDSE) launched in 2017 by CAPES / MEC.
It is also noted that professors and students of the PPGSS have regularly participated in international events through the presentation of papers, highlighting the year 2017: - The Work of the Social Worker at the National Institute of Social Security INSS in the Context of Financial Capital (Professor Vera Lúcia Batista Gomes and student Leidiany Marques - student of the master's degree in Social Work), presented at the 20th Biennial International Symposium on Multidisciplinary Education and Practices for Social Development held in the city of Zagreb - Croatia.
The Professor Adriana Azevedo Mathis was a lecturer at the II Seminar: Sistematización y analisis de impactos y buenas práticas, in Bogota-Colombia, in 2016, with the "Presentation of the diagnosis on transnational and human rights in Brazil", linked to the Research Policies of Regulation of the Transnational Corporations for Violations of Human Rights in Latin America, funded by the Ford Foundation, and carried out by the Human Rights Clinic of the Law Graduate Program and the Research Group on Labor, Human Rights and Social Security, Social Work Graduate Program. He presented a paper titled "Mining and human right - the case of Brazil", in the Seminário de expertos del goal workshop 2017, held in 2017, in Monterrey, Mexico, promoted by the Geo-network of latinamerican-german alumni. She taught Doctorate in Social Work at the auditorium of the Center for Research and Sociology Studies (CIES-IUL) of the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), in 2017, with an hourly load of 4 hours. The Event held on October 17, 2017 through the participation of edict 07/2017 of the Support Program for Institutional Cooperation that conferred international mobility between the Federal University of Pará and the University Institute of Lisbon.
In addition, the Program has expanded its international insertion also through participation in the International Cooperation Program “Alliances for Education and Training - PAEC OEA / GCUB / 2014”, within the framework of the Cooperation Agreement between the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities (CGUB), which aims to receive higher education students residing in the Americas to attend postgraduate courses at UFPA. In the year 2015, the PPGSS-UFPA received 01 (one) student, from the Republic of Haiti, who defended his Dissertation in March 2017. In 2017, the selected student came from Costa Rica.
In addition, it should be mentioned that a professor of the Program has been carrying out the Research Project entitled Extermination of the Youth of Periphery in the state of Pará, financed by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung Foundation (Germany), aiming to promote science in universities and research institutes, mainly, supporting specific projects in the field of humanities that have a specialized scope and are limited in time. A special concern of this Foundation is the deepening of postgraduate studies. The Project involves 09 (nine) undergraduate students and 02 (two) of the master's degree course.
It was also approved under the coordination of Professor Reinaldo Pontes, edict 04/2018 PACI / PROPESP / PROINT, for the coming of Dr. Juliana Lando Canga Buza, from the Higher Institute of Social Works of Luanda / Angola, for a stay in Belém (Pa) from 03 to 13/11/2018, aiming to fulfill scientific programming, which includes the elaboration of a research project in cooperation for shared execution between the Research Group "Research Group on Social Work, Social Policy and Professional Training" (GEPSS) / PPGSS / ICSA / UFPA, other groups that have similar research lines and the ISSS.
Currently, the PPGSS has a faculty of 14 (fourteen) professors, of which 11 (eleven) are permanent, 02 (collaborators) and 01 (one) visiting professor. It is recorded that one of the collaborating professors is Professor Yolanda Aparecida Demétrio Guerra, linked to the Graduate Program of the School of Social Work of UFRJ. Of the 14 professors (permanent, collaborators and visitor) the graduated in Social Work corresponds to 85.7%, adapting itself to the orientations of the Area of Social Work. 02 (two) professors are trained in the following areas: Political Science and Socioenvironmental Sciences, which are foreigners, being 01 (one) French and the other Dutch, both settled in Brazil for many years. The visiting professor has a degree and Doctoral in Anthropology.
Among the permanent professors, five have completed post-doctoral studies, two in national institutions (UFPE, UFRJ) and three in international institutions (University of Buenos Aires / Argentina, Institute of Sociology / University of Letters Porto / Portugal and University Free from Berlin / Germany). The professors of the PPGSS have submitted to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) applications for a Research Productivity Grant, and in 2015, two professors were included in the PQ Level 2, which is of great importance to the advance the research of the faculty of the PPGSS, as well as to add to the evaluation of the Program by CAPES.
The PPGSS-UFPA Collegiate Planning includes several strategies to expand and advance other forms of internationalization of the Program, namely: via skipe lectures with researchers from foreign universities; incentives to the participation of foreign professors in Qualification Examination Boards (masters and doctorate) and Thesis / Dissertation Defenses; encouraging students and professors to improve their foreign language skills, especially English; incentives to publish articles in magazines / periodicals qualified in the area of Social Work and related areas; articulate with Brazilian universities that already have cooperation with universities strangerias aiming at the participation of professors of the PPGSS-UFPA.
The PPGSS focuses on Social Work and Social Policies, which is linked to two Research lines, namely: Research Line 1: Social Work and Social Policies in the Amazon and Research Line 2: Social Work and Work in the Amazon. These lines are supported by the production of knowledge of professors and students linked to the following Groups of Studies and Research, namely: Research Group City, Housing and Human Space (GEP-CIHAB); Research Group on Urban Policies and Social Movements (GPPUMA); Group of Studies and Research Work, State, and Society in the Amazon (GEP-TESA); Study Group on Social Work, Social Policy and Vocational Training (GEPSS); Labor, Human Rights, and Social Security (TRADHUSS); Research Group Society, Territory, and Resistance in the Amazon (GESTERRA).