Representações sociais dos professores de geografia a respeito de sua formação inicial

Abstract

This study aims to cognize the social representations of geography teachers working in state public schools in the city of Santos, SP, regarding his initial education. It is a qualitative research as anounced by Bogdan and Biklen (1994), which is based on the Social Representation Theory / TRS (MOSCOVICI, 2012), and authors who are dedicated to study the initial teacher education, Geography teacher education, as Pontuschka, Paganelli and Cacete (2009), Cavalcanti (2012) and Callai (2013), dealing with the education of geography teachers; and Nóvoa (1995), Abdalla (2006, 2012 and 2013a, 2013b), Saviani (2011), García (2012), Tardif (2012), among others, to discuss the initial teacher education. The research was developed in three steps: first, exploratory interviews with three teachers were held; then a questionnaire was applied with open and closed questions to twenty-five (25) teachers; and in the third stage, deepening interviews were made with two (02) newly graduated teachers and two (02) Geography students. Based on the data, the results are anchored in two dimensions of analysis. The formative dimension to the category initial education and sense units: knowledge necessary for teaching, in which teachers recognize the importance of university education for the career; the internship as articulation between theory and practice, where teachers do not recognize the importance of the internship for their education; and, finally, sense of unity, the choice of Geography course, which, according to teachers, was made under the influence of other teachers. The professional dimension, with the ranking of the challenges of early career, in which teachers highlight some epistemological obstacles, such as inadequate education difficulting their work, inter-relational difficulties, highlighting by facing the school reality and, finally, recognize that become teachers by practicing in the classroom. Finally, the data indicate that education for change depends on a education policy that contributes to that complaint the ""bureaucracy"", both in University degree, as in the practices of schools, encouraging a more critical education, and developing internship, which are linked to the schools.