Communicative and strategic planning-action approach: social technology for the planning of postgraduate programs

Abstract

The Communicative and strategic planning-action approach methodology (CSP) combines strategy and communicative rationality. It is coherent and enables strategic planning when applied to socially constructed contexts, such as in graduate programs (PPG). This study reports the experience of the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences (GPES) of the Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR) using the CSP in the 2015/2016 Planning, setting the bases for the planning process of other graduate programs of the univeristy. This is a qualitative and applied research, adopting a descriptive approach and using participatory procedures. The data were collected from research diaries where participant observation was registered, and from semi-structured forms used to obtain feedback about the planning process with the participants. The data collected was then submitted to descriptive and content analysis. Twenty-one professors participated in this process. A planning team was formed including professors from the GPES to adapt and apply the CSP. The planning process was structured in three rounds with meetings in two cities in order to write the GPES Development and Consolidation Plan for 2015/2016. It was possible to observe the positive results obtained in the planning process since the participants recognized the method’s capacity to gather them to establish dialogues and connections regarding their projects, also facilitating a shared understanding about the programs context. The planning process originated a methodological proposal adapting and contextualizing the CSP in order to be used in other graduate programs of UNIR. The results show that the CSP is a useful social technology to improve graduate programs, helping them to achieve their potential, structuring the basis for the dialogue between the program and its environment, producing actions of scientific and social impact.

Keywords:
Communicative and strategic planning-action approach; Theory of communicative action; Graduate programs