Formação e docência de professores bacharéis na educação profissional e tecnológica no IFRN: uma interface dialógica emancipatória

Abstract

This study deals with teachers’ training and the didactical-pedagogical work of bachelor teachers in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). By bachelor teachers here it is meant graduates or post-graduates in specific areas, who take teaching duties without teachers’ training and with no experience in teaching. With Law n. 11,892 from 2008, the Federal Institutes took on a new institutional framework and they expanded their social function as multi-curricular and multi-campus institutions for basic, vocational, and higher education and as members of the Federal Network for Vocational and Technological Education (EPT). This new context requires teachers to teach different types of courses at different levels. It is questioned, therefore: to what extent does the specific training of bachelor teachers respond to the knowledge needed for their teaching duties? What are the teachers’ training needs for bachelor teachers? How does the lack of teacher training imply teaching practices? How does teaching receive special regulation on the EPT? Its objective is to analyze how bachelor teachers view the professional dimension of teaching and the interfaces between their specific training and their teaching practice. It is based on studies by Freire (1996); Machado (2008); Frigotto, Ciavatta and Ramos (2005); Nóvoa (2009); Flowers and Viana (2007); Day (2001; 2007); Ramalho and Nuñez (2014); Tardif (2002); Garcia (1999, 2009); Pacheco and Morgado (2002); Star and Caetano (2012); Esteves (2014); Shulman (2005); Pinar (2006); Oliveira (2014); Moreira (2008); Fullan and Hargreaves (2001), among others. It starts with the premise that teacher training requires knowledge inherent to teaching as a profession. These skills, experiences and knowledge are involved in the construction of teachers’ identity and in their professional development. This is a case study in the IFRN, carried out through a qualitative and quantitative research approach. Teachers and managers acted as informants committed to reflection and the search for alternatives to the addressed problem. It used document analysis, inquiries, interviews and focus groups. The study reveals that teachers and managers have very heterogeneous academic training and high level titles, a typical university teaching profile. Most recognize the need for teachers’ training to better understanding, mastery and expertise in the teaching activities. It is revealed, however, a certain exceptionality in regard to a breach of law, which we think corresponds to the transition in changing the profile of the institution. This may be a possible understanding retrieved from the reading of regulatory frameworks (laws, opinions and resolutions) which underpin the teaching in the Federal Institutes. It proposes to implement a Teachers’ Training and Updating as domestic policy for continuous in-service training in order to contribute to strengthen teacher’s identity and the new profile of the Federal Institutes.