Artistic-Cultural Perspectives in Technical-Professional Training at UTFPR-Brazil

Abstract

In this research, we intend to study the role of art in the creative process, in engineering courses at the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), as a technological innovation factor. This qualitative research is characterised as a method for adopting a naturalistic and descriptive perspective. The sample is composed of students and graduates (10); teachers, coordinators and directors of Education of the Pato Branco Campus (10); Dean (1); Entrepreneurs (4). In the analysis and discussion of results from semi-structured interviews, we opted for Content Analysis, having in perspective the Theory of Social Representations of Moscovici. Among the main conclusions, we highlight the valorisation of creative, interpersonal and communicative skills as fundamental competences in the formation of an engineer. It is also highlighted that the role of art in engineering can enhance creativity and constitute a factor of technological innovation. This can promote the imagination and the capacity for necessary and fundamental abstraction in the design of engineering projects and the communicational plan. The integration of art in formal training, at the moment, does not constitute an institutional option, nor does it contribute to a significant dialogical relationship between curricular activities and extracurricular artistic activities.