This article comments on and debates a few ideas presented by Kuenzer in an article published in this edition regarding the perspective of the hegemonic contentions among the groups that occupy the State in its relationship with the civil society. We have resumed the analysis of the public forces that influenced the reform made by decree # 2.208/97 by discussing the choice made by the first Lula administration to redirect the public professional education policy towards the commitments taken-on with progressive sectors. Nonetheless, this process brought contradictions to the 'new' policy's content and form. Brazil's professional education, even in an era in which the technical and scientific base of production has become more complex, seeks to qualify people for simple work while using symbolic control devices in association with the idea of citizenship and social intervention. So far as complex work is concerned, the projects under discussion do not bring the needed science and technology production publicization under the spotlight, one that should be guided by the organic bind between the workers' omnilateral and polytechnic education, public policy for science and technology, and the design of a sovereign nation. We conclude this conception is neither hegemonic in the civil society nor a governmental priority. By analyzing these phenomena and their contradictions, we can learn with history.
professional education; educational policies; educational reform