Curso de letramento laboral para cuidadoras de idosos: uma proposta de intervenção

Abstract

This master’s thesis analyzes workshops from a labor literacy course for caregivers to the elderly, whose audience is former students of the Caregiver to the elderly course from Programa Mulheres Mil, offered by the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte - Natal Central campus. The workshops of literacy – taken as literacy events (HEATH, 1983) – are the research object of this study, and the data generated by them are the corpus of this thesis. Thus, this master’s thesis aims to evaluate how the literacy program helped caregivers to the elderly pupils in their qualification process for the job market. In theoretical terms, this thesis is part of the Applied Linguistics field, within the labor literacy area (PAZ, 2008). Discussions on literacy are based on the studies of Street (2014a), and its action as situated practice, and also anchored on the studies of Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic (2000), as well as the social practice perspective (KLEIMAN, 1995). The reflections about genres rely on Bakhtin’s contribution (1997) on genres theory, and on genres as social action studies, established by the Socio Rhetoric (SWALES, 1990, 1998; BAZERMAN, 2011a, 2011b, 2015; MILLER, 2012). Methodologically, the action research guidelines were adopted (THIOLLENT, 2011), with ethnographic traces when applying them. Data analysis is carried out through the qualitative research perspective (ANDRADE, 2009; CALEFFE and MOREIRA, 2006; BARBOSA, 2005; VÓVIO and SOUZA, 2005; GATTI, 2005; WOLCOTT, 1994). The results of this thesis demonstrate that the literacy program was favorable for the reinterpretation of the writing practices of the participants, once it allowed them to understand the possibility of acting socially through genres they use in their professional field. This awareness has contributed to the empowerment of women in their job as caregivers to the elderly and their actions as citizens. In this sense, it is suggested that the some changes in Portuguese Language discipline take place within the professional courses of Programa Mulheres Mil in order to meet the labor needs of women partaking of the caregivers to the elderly course.