QWhat is the role of a faculty of education within the university? Should a math teacher have a background in education? Or get a bachelor's degree in mathematics and then, if you want, prepare to teach mathematics? We have a decades-long discussion that has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, including among educators. Officially created in 1972, based on the need to train teachers in Bachelor's degrees, the Faculty of Education at Unicamp was born challenged to justify its own implementation. In relation to Degrees, there have always been those who argued that the teaching methodology of Physics, for example, should be the responsibility of the Institute of Physics, of Biology by the Institute of Biology, and so on. And the creation of the Pedagogy course, in 1974, raised a certain disbelief in relation to the pedagogue, as if he were carrying out a second-level activity when the university's vocation was cutting-edge research.

The history of the Faculty of Education at Unicamp is told by professors Antonio Muniz de Rezende, Eduardo Oscar de Campos Chaves, Luiz Carlos de Freitas and Jorge Megid Neto, each speaking about their time and expressing their positions. Rezende and Chaves say that Montezuma, a former priest, tried to give the college a more humanistic and less professional approach. The course loads for subjects such as Philosophy and History of Education went well beyond the minimum required by the MEC, which did not work because the students, submitted to full-time training, had joined the course precisely because they needed to work.

Director from 1972 to 1976, Montezuma could have remained in the position, as the appointment was the rector's prerogative. However, there was internal dissatisfaction with his way of managing, seen as authoritarian and centralizing – he argued that personal experience authorized him to act this way. Having decided to leave, the rector endorsed the unit's preference for Antonio Mariz de Rezende, who returned from abroad with a doctorate in theology (in Rome) and another in philosophy (in Louvain). Although he was teaching in Canada, he agreed to return to Brazil at the suggestion of Professor Newton Aquiles von Zuben, to teach Philosophy of Culture at Unicamp.

In 1976, Rezende received from Rogério Cerqueira Leite, general coordinator of the Institutes, the challenge-invitation to raise the status of the Faculty of Education to the level of the Institutes of Physics, Biology and Mathematics, units that contributed to the prestige achieved by the University in less than ten years of existence. Aware that his role was to seek the political affirmation of the Faculty, inside and outside the campus, Rezende invited Eduardo Chaves, who had arrived in 1974 to coordinate the Pedagogy course and the Postgraduate Course in the following year, as associate director, being aware, therefore, the legislation, the curricular composition and the shortages in teaching and staff.

While Chaves took care of the day-to-day running of the unit, Rezende dedicated himself to university politics, consistent with a conception of education as learning about culture. He then began hiring more philosophers, historians and social scientists than education specialists. The Department of Philosophy and History of Education, which gave the unit's guidelines for almost twenty years, brought together names such as Dermeval Saviani, Rubem Alves, Régis Francisco de Moraes, Antonio Joaquim Severino, Moacir Gadotti, Evaldo Amaro Vieira and Augusto Novaski, to whom a little later Paulo Freire joined.

Internally, Rezende managed to involve teachers and staff by adopting a policy of deciding nothing alone, always seeking support from the Interdepartmental Council. Outside, he really tried to take relations with other units and other institutions to another level. He was intensely active in the strikes against the Maluf government in 1978 and 1979, attending assemblies and defending teachers involved in the movement with the Board of Directors. At the end of his administration, a democratic succession process was opened, with consultation with teachers, staff and students. A similar process was carried out at the Faculty of Engineering, which chose Maurício Prates, and in other units, giving rise to the so-called group of “democratic directors”.

Political game – At the Faculty of Education, Eduardo Chaves naturally headed the list sent to the dean – who was already Plínio Alves de Moraes. However, he only took over as director in May 1980, at great cost. This was because at that time a commotion was emerging around the demand for maximum ownership for so-called independent directors, beginning a tense political game that would culminate in the most critical episode in the history of Unicamp, the intervention decreed by Maluf in 1981 and the resistance to it.

It was Eduardo Chaves, then, who entered the political scene, handing over the administrative problems of the unit to associate director Pedro Goergen. He became one of the characters of the resistance, as shown by Jornal da Unicamp in the last chapters of the series O Mandarin. The chapter on the hiring of Paulo Freire (edition 329), however, does not report Chaves' fear of being fired, when he was summoned by Plínio Moraes' staff to explain why he had signed, on behalf of the Faculty, a document to Itamaraty asking for the release of the educator's passport.

The chapter on The Mandarin in this edition (pages 6 and 7) reveals the nuances that allowed Chaves to obtain the writ of mandamus for his reinstatement to his position at the college, offering the example followed by other dismissed directors such as Aécio Pereira Chaves Chagas (IQ) , Ayda Ignez Arruda (Imecc), Carlos Argüello (IFGW) and Carlos Franchi (IEL). The pile of legal petitions in the cabinet would force negotiations to end the crisis at the University. Chaves, however, didn't like the game he saw and that experience was enough. With two more years of his term to serve, until 1984, he felt unmotivated even when it came to the unit's internal politics, becoming increasingly involved in administrative matters.
The successor Pedro Goergen is credited with promoting a high degree of institutionalization of the unit, complemented by the construction of its own building. According to Luiz Carlos de Freitas, with the expansion of the number of teachers and staff and the entry of professionals of the most varied conceptions, there was a greater dynamic in scientific production and political participation. However, philosophers and historians, including Goergen, would remain at the head of the faculty for almost another decade, until the administrations of José Dias Sobrinho (1988-1990) and José Luís Sanfelice (1990-1996).

Adding waters – Freitas, the first pedagogue to take over as director, refutes the view that his management meant a watershed in the history of the Faculty of Education, highlighting that the intention was not to divide, but to “add waters” with those who wanted to present themselves. What Freitas shares are the credits for the effort to improve the structure of scientific production in Postgraduate and undergraduate courses, for the inclusion of the faculty within the scope of new technologies, and for the opening given to administrative employees in terms of participation and growth professional. He mentions partners such as Ana Luiza Smolka, Angel Pino Sirgado, Helena Lopes de Freitas, Elizabete Mercury, Ivany Rodrigues Pino, among others.

With Freitas, professionals took over the Faculty who defend, as the basis of the Pedagogy course, the training of teachers – and not specialists qualified in different fragmented areas. He justifies this emphasis with a comparison: just as the Faculty of Medicine has its field defined by its social responsibility in relation to health, the Faculty of Education has its scope defined by its social responsibility in relation to education and within this scope to school. Hence, the central role of the unit is to train professionals for education, although this should not be understood in a restrictive way.

In this sense, Luiz Carlos de Freitas severely criticizes the University, which at the beginning of the administration of his successor Agueda Bernadete Bittencourt (2000-2004) removed responsibility for degrees from the Faculty of Education and handed them over to the Institutes. Criticism accentuated by another comparison: doctors are not trained at the Institute of Biology, despite the importance of biology in doctor training.

The current director Jorge Megid Neto, who suffered the setback as associate director of Agueda Bittencourt, observes that this prejudice seen at the university reflects a contradiction in society, which on the one hand recognizes the importance of education for the country, but on the other sees it naturally an amateur footballer teaching physical education classes on weekends at a public school. Therefore, although everyone carries out teaching activities at university, they should not think they understand education. Graduated in Physics from Unicamp, Megid Neto completed his degree and has a master's and doctorate in the field of education, having worked as a high school teacher for 16 years. Despite being a physicist, he emphasizes that his professional training is as an educator.

The FE today – In 2005, 4.871 students attended Pedagogy, Bachelor's and Postgraduate courses, 450 of them in the day and night periods of the regular Pedagogy course. The Postgraduate Course received 700 students – in the Education and Gerontology programs, 970 master's theses and 671 doctoral theses have already been defended. The Faculty has been offering a new Pedagogy course for a few years, within the Special Training Program for In-Service Teachers (PEFoPex), which had 114 enrolled last year. The Special Teacher Training Program for Early Childhood Education and the Initial Series of Elementary Education (Proesf) served 1.600 students in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. A specialization course for managers of the state public system, lato-sensu modality, is covering around 6.000 managers.

Since the end of the 1980s, the Faculty of Education has maintained a staff of around 100 teachers (99 in 2005). However, from 96 onwards, half of the staff changed with the retirement of old teachers and the hiring of new ones. Jorge Megid Neto, who is among the entrants in the last ten years, admits that his generation suffers from already having to take on academic administration positions. And he, who is not a philosopher, historian or pedagogue, observes that this renovation is changing the face of the Faculty.