Course recommended by CAPES: Concept 3. Recognized by the MEC Ordinance: Nº 612/2007, of 22 of June of 2007, published in DOU of June 25, 2007.
Recognition renewed by MEC Ordinance: N° 1.140/2008, September 10, 2008, published in the DOU of September 11, 2008.
Recognition renewed by MEC Ordinance: No. 1.077/2012, of August 31, 2012, published in the DOU of September 13, 2012.
Course recommended by CAPES: Concept 4. Recognition renewed by MEC Ordinance: Nº 656/2017, of 22 May 2017, published in the DOU of 27 July 2017.
In 1985, the Geography Course - Bachelor's Degree - of the then Faculty of Human Sciences of Francisco Beltrão (FACIBEL, in Portuguese) was created. This course was, on that occasion, implemented through the transformation of the former course of Social Studies - Short Degree, created in the same faculty in 1975. In 1999, FACIBEL was transformed into a Campus of UNIOESTE (Western Paraná State University). This event defined the public character of the courses that the old institution offered, including the Geography, and the recognition of this course had already occurred through Opinion No. 403 dated November 18, 1986.
With the implementation of the stateization process, from a night course, which offered seventy-five vacancies, in 2001, it started to offer forty vacancies both in the night period and in the morning. Until the year 2004, it was kept the formation integrated between licentiate and bachelor, counting with a serial regime of five years. From that year on, a new curriculum was implemented that separated the two qualifications previously offered in an integrated way. The Bachelor's Degree is restricted to the morning period, translating into an autonomous course and regulated by objectives different from those intended by the Licentiate.
In addition to these changes occurred in the formation of Unioeste, several other transformations have been happening in the sense of improving the activities developed. There is, in a very significant way, the strengthening of undergraduate and graduate courses through the increasing growth in terms of infrastructure, teaching staff and knowledge production, which have an impact on teaching, research and extension activities. This fact culminates today, certainly, in quality of professional training that tends to grow, expanding the performance possibilities of graduates.
At the same time, with regard to geography, some specialization courses and various events were held, such as the Meeting of Geography from the Unioeste (ENGEO), accompanied by the Meeting of Geography from the Southwest of Paraná (ENGESOP); the Conference on Work; the Seminar on Research and Extension and the Colloquium of Scientific Initiation from the Center for Human Sciences of the Unioeste; the State Seminar on Territorial Studies and the National Interdisciplinary Seminar on Educational Experiences. Part of these events are organized by research groups linked to the Center for Human Sciences - Francisco Beltrão, which currently has five groups registered in the PRPPG of Unioeste and Cnpq. In addition, there are two more study groups linked to the Geography course (Licentiate, with 40 vacancies in the night shift, implemented in 1997) and the Center for Human Sciences, Education and Literature from Unioeste, Marechal Cândido Rondon Campus.
These activities now meet with the completion of the graduate course in geography, at the master's level, which unites professors of the undergraduate courses of Marechal C. Rondon and Francisco Beltrão, in order to strengthen professional training, scientific research and the production of knowledge, focused on geographic science, with a historical-critical character and as a subsidy and mediation in the process of achieving better living conditions.
The Graduate Program in Geography - Master and Doctorate of UNIOESTE - Francisco Beltrão Campus, meets a series of regional demands in relation to the training of qualified personnel for performing at various levels of the professional market. The Southwest and Western regions of Paraná, Western Santa Catarina and Northwest Rio Grande do Sul have about ten undergraduate courses in Geography ( Licentiate and Bachelor), which has generated a demand for the qualification of teachers and researchers to meet the needs of these HEIs. In addition, there is an effective demand for governmental agencies, such as IBGE, INCRA, EMATER, IAP and non-governmental organizations, such as Assesoar, in which geographic science has been fundamental to subsidize strategies that aim a territorial development in line with the new concerns with the environment.
At the same time, there are professionals with knowledge in the area of Geography in public and private companies that lack better training and greater theoretical and methodological subsidies for their work. Thus, critical analysis, both empirical-reflective and at the epistemological level, are fundamental for the interpretation and representation of space and territory. In this context, we believe that the Unioeste Graduate Program in Geography, at the master's level, focused on the research lines entitled Economic development and territorial dynamics and Dynamics, use and preservation of the environment, can mediate and strengthen the process of knowledge production, with a multidimensional understanding of the correlations that have historically been established between society and nature. This requires a reflection that covers economic development, territorial processes, as well as the dynamics, use and preservation of the environment.Concentration Area:
Spatial Production and Environment
Humans have been building their spatiality since ancient times through a process of constant interaction with nature, transforming it through their work and, simultaneously, also building themselves as social beings in this relationship. In Geography, the human-nature relationship becomes, in fact, a structuring element of his discourse, a background in the elaboration of his categories, concepts and object cutting. More systematic studies about this relationship, permeated by important philosophical sources, were developed in Geography from the nineteenth century on, mainly with Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and his ecological bias, and with Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and his innovative proposal of science that covered the relationship human-nature throughout history. In this perspective, breaking with the dualistic discourse that separates the so-called Human and Natural Sciences, Geography seeks to spatialize its research seeking to interrelate the so-called physical studies with the "human", the themes linked to economic and territorial development with those of environmental dynamics. It is in this intention that the Program proposes the two lines of research that follow.
Research Line:
Economic Development and Territorial Dynamics
Since Antiquity, Geography has had unfoldings that culminated in its systematization as a science, centered on modern rationality, from the end of the eighteenth century. Thus, Geography has profound changes in the level of thought and production of knowledge, substantiated by different interpretations of the region, the landscape, the geographical space, the territory and the place. From the middle of the twentieth century on, conditions were created for the implementation of different approaches and conceptions, contemplating forms and contents and the different social dimensions of geographical processes.
In this sense, this research line favors both reflection on philosophical elements of Modern Science, as well as procedures for research in regional and territorial studies in Geography; the organization of the economic space, the main changes in the world of work; the production of urban and regional space, with its characteristic agents and processes and the agrarian dynamics and social movements, guiding and instrumentalizing the graduate student to develop projects, carry out research and to describe, analyze and interpret phenomena and territorial processes.
Dynamics, Use and Preservation of the Environment
Today, with the emergence of environmental issues, the result of the problems of the expansion of the industrial society in which we live, the discussions related to the relationship between society and nature become fundamental. In this perspective, an important contribution comes from geographic science. The environmental studies derived from the production of basic science and, therefore, from empirical surveys and their respective analyses, support the understanding of the problems raised by anthropic action. It is common among geography researchers to seek an understanding of the dynamics of the physical environment as a basis for discussions about the use and preservation of the environment.
In this sense, this research line enables the effective conduction of studies that deal with topics such as: identification of units of analysis and factors of landscape evolution; the genesis and evolution of soils; morphogenetic processes; hydrological processes, use and management of water resources; and spatial representation with a focus on environmental education. Such themes allow the understanding of environmental dynamics as a subsidy to the use and preservation of the environment. In addition, they point out some paths and perspectives in a broader sense, linked to economic and territorial development, making it appropriate for the inter-disciplinary demand that arises from environmental issues.
Education and Teaching of Geography
The transformations in the way of learning and teaching Geography, in recent decades, are interconnected by the introduction and deepening of methodologies, of the geotechnologies of space representation, with respect to its theoretical and methodological collection within the framework of basic research in the fields of Geography. Thus, we must admit that these transformations in the field of geographic knowledge have been posing challenges for the training of geographer-teacher of primary - secondary - higher education.
This research line aims to provide the qualification of professionals in the public education system, both regional, state and national for the development of research on the problems related to education and teaching. An important aspect to consider is the deepening of this action, both in the sense of supplying the pendency for the formation of masters who can act in a more intense and qualified way in education in Geography, as well as expanding the research, giving greater emphasis on understanding the integration between the production of knowledge of geographical space and environmental issues expanding the relationships and discussions in the school context and outside of it.
In this sense, this research line benefits both the reflection on epistemological elements of geographical science, as well as the philosophical aspects of Education and Teaching of Geography, as the procedures for studies and research aimed at understanding the different theoretical and practical dimensions of Education and Teaching of Geography, from the analysis of the foundations and the relations education-society-nature and geographical education in its different specificities, in school education and environmental education. Orienting and instrumentalizing the graduate student to develop projects, carry out research, analyze and interpret phenomena that occur in the context of geographic science and that are necessary for school knowledge.