A teachers’ formative process in soil education takes place while integrated to their life stories

Abstract

The teacher’s formative process is developed by a critical reflective response to the paths of life, the profession, and its practices. The teacher’s formative process analysis should consider the process’s objectives (theoretical, practical, and emancipatory), and the dimensions that make up the teacher (person, practices, and profession). As a result, this study aims to introduce the elements that outline the categories stemming from the relationship matrix between the objectives and the dimensions, and use them to analyze a formative process in Soil Education assessed using Formative (Auto)biographical Narratives. The research subjects were 61 teachers active in the Public Education System in the cities of Campo Largo and Curitiba, state of Paraná, Brazil, who took part in the formative process known as Soil Program for Teachers within the Soil at School Project from the Federal University of Paraná, held in 2018. Data collection was performed through written narratives given in response to three groups of open-ended questions, which aimed to encourage teachers to think deep. We performed the Content Analysis in the narratives while differentiating expressions associated with the elements in each category, and, consequently, the frequency of the expressions was recorded. As for the Theoretical Objectives within the analysis of the Program, in which the teacher is the study object, we found that the teachers built and rebuilt knowledge and expertise about the soil while drawing on the relationship between the formative conceptual approaches and the recollection of their professional and personal experiences through the Narratives. Within the Practical Objectives, in which self-formation is analyzed, the Narrative influenced a critical and reflective perspective about the person, the practice, and the profession, while driving teachers to their self-formation and creating their professional identity. As for the analysis of the Emancipatory Objectives, which demonstrate the change of reality, the teacher’s transformation was seen in their change of attitude and practices, as well as in their intent to get involved with the school. We concluded that the elements proposed to outline the nine categories were effective to analyze the formative process in Soil Education, by taking into account, in an integral way, the Objectives of the analysis and the Dimensions that make up the teacher while in his/her formative process. We would also like to point out that the Narratives were an important instrument for continuous education in Soil Education.