This study describes the learning projects of a sample of engineers between the ages of 25 and 35 employed by a single employer in Port Worth, Texas. The problem of this study was the nature and extent of the continuing education programs of young engineers and the implications of these programs to their job requirements and possible employer assistance. The purposes of this study were to determine the number and types of learning projects undertaken each year by engineers with degrees, the number of hours spent by the subjects, the problems experienced, the resources used, the amount of job-related learning projects undertaken, the locations used to pursue learning projects, and whether the learning projects were amenable to assistance from employers.

CNPq / O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar como dois cursos de Engenharia da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) estão respondendo às exigências socioeducacionais preconizadas pelas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais de Engenharia (DCNs) (BRASIL, 2002b), que estabeleceram, entre outros aspectos, a necessidade da construção de outra identidade profissional mais sintonizada com os desafios políticos, econômicos, culturais e ambientais da realidade brasileira e mundial. Em especial, nosso olhar investigativo se voltou para entender os sentidos construídos sobre as relações entre tecnologia e sociedade nos cursos de Engenharia. Considerando, de um lado, a necessidade de um olhar que acompanhe o caráter heterogêneo, fronteiriço, coconstruído e negociado do processo de revisão curricular e, de outro, a relevância do enfrentamento da tensão determinista e dos desafios sociotécnicos regionais para a configuração do novo perfil de engenheiro, buscamos articular um quadro conceitual-metodológico fundado na perspectiva teórica da análise sociotécnica, nos Estudos Latino-Americanos de Tecnologia Social, bem como na perspectiva discursivo-dialógica do Círculo de Bakhtin. O corpus foi constituído por documentos legais e institucionais relacionados à implementação das DCNs nos dois cursos de Engenharia, bem como por entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores e estudantes desses dois cursos. Os resultados mostraram duas configurações curriculares nas quais as relações entre tecnologia e sociedade são entendidas e dimensionadas com diferentes enfoques: no primeiro curso analisado, constatou-se uma significativa perspectiva determinista tecnológica, traduzida em uma organização curricular disciplinar, em que prevalece uma ênfase voltada predominantemente para a formação tecnológica no seu sentido mais estrito, sendo que o mercado e o setor industrial aparecem como principais interlocutores sociais da atuação do futuro engenheiro; no segundo curso de Engenharia pesquisado, percebeu-se, de um lado, uma tensão dialógica entre uma formação voltada para a problematização dos aspectos sociais da tecnologia em diversos setores da sociedade e, de outro, uma organização curricular disciplinar que enseja desafios consideráveis para a superação da tensão determinista. / The objective of this study is to analyze how two undergraduate Engineering courses at the Federal Technology University at Paraná (UTFPR) are attending the socio-educational recommended by the Brazilian National Engineering Curricular Directives (Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais de Engenharia – DCNs) (BRASIL, 2002b). Among other aspects, they established the need to construct a professional identity which is more synthesized with political, economic, cultural, and environmental challenges of the current Brazilian and international reality. Our investigative perspective was especially directed to better understand the senses constructed concerning relationships between technology and society within Brazilian Engineering courses. On the one hand is the need to look at what accompanies the heterogeneous, frontier-based, co-constructed character negotiated from the curricular review process. On the other hand is the relevance of facing the determinist tension and regional socio-technical challenges to configuring the new engineering profile. As such, we seek to articulate a conceptual-methodological framework based on the Socio-technical Analysis theoretical perspective in Social Technology Latin-American Studies, as well as Bakhtin‟s discursive Circle dialogue perspective. The corpus was constituted upon legal and institutional documents related to implementing the DCNs within the two Brazilian Engineering courses, as well as semi-structured interviews with professors and students from these courses. Results show two curricular configurations in which the relationships between technology and society are understood to be dimensioned on different emphases: the first course analyzed showed a significant determinist technology-based perspective, translated into a curricular disciplinary organization, in which the emphasis geared predominantly to technological formation in its strictest sense, given that the market and industrial sector appear as the principle social players of the future engineer‟s contribution; while the second course studied revealed a dialogical tension between formal education geared to discussing the social aspects of technology in various sectors of society and a disciplinary curricular organization which gives rise to considerable challenges to overcoming such determinist tension.