Created in 1972 to cover pedagogical subjects in Unicamp's undergraduate courses, FE expanded its role in training professionals in Education with the opening of the undergraduate course in Pedagogy (1974) and the implementation of the master's degree (1975) and doctorate in Education (1980).
Within the undergraduate scope, the Faculty is responsible for the Pedagogy and by the course of Integrated Degree in Chemistry and Physics (shared with two other Unicamp units), and also offers subjects for the University's other undergraduate courses.
Considered one of the most important in Latin America, its Postgraduate Degree in Education plays a fundamental role in the composition of higher education frameworks in Brazil. With the expansion of postgraduate studies in education, many masters and doctors trained by FE-Unicamp are responsible for the installation of new programs in the most diverse regions of the country. Since 2011, FE has also trained educators in Multi-Unit Postgraduate Program in Science and Mathematics Teaching (Pecim), carried out in cooperation with the Physics, Chemistry and Geosciences institutes of Unicamp.
Its teachers are organized into research groups that address various topics in the field of education. Undergraduate and graduate students participate in the research undertaken by the groups, as well as researchers from the network of relationships that the unit maintains with institutions in several Brazilian states and countries such as Germany, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, France, Italy, Portugal and Uruguay. The numerous agreements and agreements for national and international cooperation have also provided intense mobility of professors and graduate students from the unit between different institutions.
In the area of extension, FE has a tradition of partnerships with public bodies, which it serves with a series of actions, such as promoting training courses for teachers and managers of public education networks throughout the country, influencing the improvement of the Brazilian education system.
The Faculty also has a sophisticated infrastructure of distance learning – considered a model in the application of telecommunications resources in education, which allows videoconferencing in teaching, research and event activities, in real time, to different remote locations and other countries.
A FE “Prof. Joel Martins” Library has a specialized collection of 47 thousand volumes, including books, theses and periodicals. Part of its assets is the Maurício Tragtenberg Private Collection, composed of rare works, manuscripts and personal objects of the intellectual, totaling 10 thousand volumes. Education Memory Center The FE also houses the Malba Tahan Private Collection (pseudonym of Professor Júlio César de Mello e Souza), comprising “Travel Diaries”, “Personal Archive” and 120 works of his authorship, 35 of which are on Mathematics Education.
More than qualifying professionals for teaching and research, FE effectively contributes to the formulation of national thinking on Education, through the proposal of policies and courses and the participation of its teachers in the various administrative and deliberative bodies at regional and national levels.