A docência e a institucionalização da educação híbrida no ensino superior

Abstract

This study investigated the institutionalization process of hybrid education in Brazilian public higher education, anchored in the epistemological framework of Inhabited Institutionalism to examine the intersection of teaching praxis and digital culture. The overall objective of this research is to understand the mutual influences between daily professional practice and the consolidation of hybrid arrangements. It analyzes the multiple impacts experienced by educators and the strategies through which these professionals re-signify and shape contemporary academic reality through their everyday interactions. To substantiate this reflection, the study sought to systematize the conceptual boundaries of hybridization, examine the training models provided by university administrations, and evaluate how organizational guidelines affect faculty identity and working conditions. Methodologically, the study adopted a fundamentally qualitative, basic, and exploratory approach, supported by multiple sources of evidence and data triangulation. The preliminary phase consisted of a rigorous systematic literature review focusing on scientific output from the last decade, alongside a thorough examination of institutional development plans from federal universities and institutes. The fieldwork expanded the empirical scope by recruiting 280 professors from all geographic regions of Brazil. Primary data were collected through comprehensive questionnaires, 17 unstructured interviews, and the facilitation of five focus group sessions. All documentary and narrative data were processed using content analysis, with a focus on extracting core meanings. The main results reveal that the integration of remote elements into in-person courses occurs in a predominantly top-down manner. This creates ceremonial facades that satisfy state requirements but fail to support the technical core of education. A severe deficiency was observed in faculty preparation, which is largely limited to instrumental training on how to use digital platforms, ignoring the vital need for digital literacy focused on didactic transposition. As an immediate consequence, educators experience a silent process of job precarization, bearing a significant increase in their out-of-class workload and a lack of specialized support. Simultaneously, faculty interventions revealed that students, despite living in an era of hyperconnectivity, lack the digital proficiency required for learning and show strong resistance to the active role demanded by active learning methodologies. Faced with this mismatch between bureaucratic norms and infrastructural shortcomings, professors frequently resort to self-directed learning and join informal networks of mutual support. Finally, the study concludes that hybrid education cannot be established merely through decrees or the simple acquisition of technology. The research asserts that the successful implementation of methodological proposals relies on the tactical and constructive insubordination of the faculty. By actively inhabiting the normative imperative, educators operate as an instituting force capable of challenging regulations, circumventing resource shortages, and reinventing the teaching profession—thereby ensuring the survival and evolution of the public university.