Discursos de professores de matemática quanto ao ensino e à formação do licenciando de matemática: manejos da especialidade

Abstract

The discourse of Mathematics teachers about the management of their specialty in relation to the teaching and training of undergraduate Mathematics students, constructed in a historical, ideological and social way, reveals debates and power relations between mathematicians and mathematics educators. Thus, we understand that mathematicians and mathematics educators, especially those who work in the training of Mathematics teachers, each in their own way, are subjected to their own discourse of the management of their specialty, granting scientific authorities in their area of activity. The management of the specialty involves technical knowledge, thinking and different forms of power specific to the subjects, both in their position as professionals in Higher Education and also by the status of their scientific and academic field (Figueira, 2019). Given this, the question of this research is to know: how do Mathematics teachers at UFRN, mathematicians and mathematics educators, relate to the training of undergraduate Mathematics students, possibly future teachers of Basic Education? Thus, the objective of this research is to understand the handling of specialty in the discourse of teachers, especially mathematicians and mathematics educators, in relation to the teaching and training of undergraduates in Mathematics. As a thesis, we defend that the discourse on the handling of the specialty of mathematicians and mathematics educators is differentiated by the status of their scientific field of work. In this, we identify traces of beliefs about the teaching and training of undergraduates in Mathematics that, combined with the discrepancies caused by the historical, ideological and power struggles for scientific and academic authority in the field of training of Mathematics teachers, support the discourse of prejudice against the mathematics educator. This study aims to contribute to the strengthening of the field of Mathematics Education. In this research, we used a qualitative and interpretative approach with theoretical and methodological support from Discourse Analysis; in the constitution of the data, we had the collaboration of some professors from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The instruments used in the production of the data were questionnaires and semistructured interviews. We understand that the data are part of a discursive formation and, in order to analyze and interpret them, we articulate them as units of meaning, considering the power and knowledge relations of the professional and scientific practice of mathematics teachers. The units of meaning point to differences in the management of the specialty of mathematicians and mathematics educators in a degree course in mathematics. In these, we identified that there is still a tendency towards a dichotomous formation that separates pedagogical training from the specific training of mathematical knowledge. Among mathematicians, we identified a tendency towards transmissive teaching with a focus on content. And, among mathematics educators, there is a tendency towards the development of teaching with a focus on the student. We found that there is still prejudice, a form of resistance and devaluation, against mathematics educators and their professional and research practice. We understand it as a historical and ideological discourse that has aged as a control device in the production of certain behaviors and attitudes useful for maintaining the hegemony of a field of knowledge. There is a symbolic construction of inferiority of mathematics educators that has been historically constructed and strengthened by the discourse of the devaluation of teaching and by some reflections on the teaching and training of undergraduate students in Mathematics.