Teacher professional development and the argument of incompetence : the case of in-service elementary teacher education in Sao Paulo, Brazil

This work proposes that since the early eighties a specific strategy has gained increasing\ud importance within official Education Programmes in Sao Paulo (Brazil) addressed to deal with\ud the high rates of pupil repetition and dropout: the concentration on teachers professional\ud development. We argue that this strategy is based on the idea of teacher's incompetence as the\ud main explanation for educational problems. This idea pervades both the conceptions of the\ud programmes and their proposed actions and practices. We discuss the idea of teacher's\ud incompetence tracing its recent origins in the literature, and investigating its repercussions for\ud the formulation and implementation of official Education Programmes, namely Basic Cycle,\ud Basic Cycle in a Single Shift and Quality School undertaken by the Sao Paulo State Secretariat\ud for Education. In order to develop our argument a programme for Teacher Professional\ud Development (1PD) carried out in the early 90's was chosen as the empirical context. A\ud systematic fieldwork based on a qualitative research method was carried out in which the\ud perceptions, expectations, and interrelations of the involved teachers, course monitors and\ud policy makers were extracted from a number of interviews and observations. Our analysis\ud demonstrates the presence of what we identify as the "argument of incompetence". Having\ud provided evidence of its presence in the educational literature and in the education policies we\ud explore and demonstrate its presence and its significance in the perceptions of the three groups\ud of professionals involved in teachers' professional development programmes we analyse. We\ud show that the "argument of incompetence" takes on different forms according to the context. It\ud tends to be more refined at the level of the educational literature and rather simplistic in the\ud education policies. However, the core of the "argument of incompetence" follows a linear\ud logic: "we do not have a good quality school only because we lack teachers of professional\ud competence". We proceed to demonstrate that it not only undermines the relations among the\ud main participating agents in teacher professional development, namely, policy makers, course\ud monitors and teachers, but it also promotes a mistaken way of thinking about teacher\ud professional development. Mistaken and simplistic as it promotes a conception of TPD that\ud overestimates its possibilities of dealing with chronic and broader issues of low quality of\ud Brazilian Basic Education without taking the necessary action regarding other vital elements\ud such as suitable conditions of work in schools and teacher's career development

Formação continuada de professores e fracasso escolar: problematizando o argumento da incompetência

This article deals with the theme of teacher education, especially with continued education and its relation with the low quality of public school systems. It presents analyses from a research on the main educational programs implemented by the government of the State of São Paulo in the 1982-1994 period. Together with the documental analysis, an empirical research was carried out including a case study of one the continued education programs envisaged at the time of the implementation of the Standard School Program (1991-1994). The analyses made of the educational literature and of the educational programs reveal that teacher continued education was seen as a strategic element to build up teacher competence. The text moves on to register the presence of a discourse that has given support to the growing importance attributed to teacher continued education, projects and actions aiming at improving the quality of education systems. The discourse of incompetence is then described and problematized. The different forms assumed by this discourse are presented, according to the context in which it appears, and also the various appropriations made by the several agents involved in the teacher continued education policies, from the architects of the programs to the participating teachers. It is proposed that the argument of incompetence has founded reductionist and homogenizing practices of continued education. The importance is highlighted of taking into account, when conceiving continued education policies, the heterogeneity that characterizes the teaching staff and schools, and also of developing broader educational policies targeting the actual improvement of the educational services and not just the competence of their teachers.Este artigo aborda o tema da formação docente, especialmente a formação continuada e sua relação com a baixa qualidade dos sistemas públicos de ensino; e apresenta análises de pesquisa sobre os principais programas educacionais implementados pelo governo do estado de São Paulo entre os anos 1982 e 1994. Além da análise documental, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa empírica que incluiu um estudo de caso de um dos projetos de formação continuada idealizados à época da implementação da Escola Padrão (1991-1994). As análises da literatura educacional e dos programas educacionais indicam que a formação continuada de professores foi encarada como elemento estratégico para forjar a competência do professor. O texto segue registrando a presença de um discurso que tem sustentado a crescente importância atribuída à formação continuada de professores, projetos e ações que visam à melhoria da qualidade dos sistemas de ensino. Trata-se do argumento da incompetência que é então descrito e problematizado. São apresentadas as várias versões que tal argumento assume, de acordo com o contexto no qual comparece, bem como as diferentes apropriações feitas pelos vários atores envolvidos nas políticas de formação continuada, desde os idealizadores dos programas até os professores participantes. Advoga-se que o argumento da incompetência tem fundamentado concepções e práticas reducionistas e homogeneizantes da formação continuada. Reitera-se a importância de se considerar, nas políticas de formação continuada, a heterogeneidade que caracteriza o corpo docente e as escolas e de se desenvolverem políticas educacionais mais abrangentes que visem melhorar de fato a qualidade dos serviços educacionais e não apenas a competência de seus professores

Novas tecnologias de comunicação e de informação: o que dizem as revisões acadêmicas canadenses, norte-americanas e a experiência brasileira?

Este artigo tem por objetivo contribuir na ampliação das discussões atualmente presentes no campo acadêmico referentes à utilização de novas mediações tecnológicas de informação e de comunicação para educação. Mais especificamente, apresentará as principais discussões e levantamentos presentes no campo da educação online (online instruction), a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica recente das produções canadense e norte-americana. Além disso, tem como objetivo estabelecer diálogo com a literatura brasileira e com experiência recente e de grande impacto no estado de São Paulo, nesta área de conhecimento, ao apresentar um programa de formação inicial de professores que utiliza as chamadas novas tecnologias da informação e comunicação (TIC) e que se realiza com a participação de universidades brasileiras de grande influência.This article aims to contribute to the expansion of the discussions currently in the academic field concerning the use of new mediations of information technology and communication for education. More specifically, will present the main discussions and surveys in the field of education on-line (on-line instruction), from literature search of recent productions Canadian and North American. Moreover, aims to establish dialogue with the Brazilian literature and with recent experience and great impact on the state of Sao Paulo, in this area of knowledge, to submit a programme of training of teachers using so-called new information and communication technologies (ICT) and to be held with the participation of Brazilian universities of great influence

Formação de professores de espanhol e a descapitalização simbólica da universidade

This paper discusses the market relations which permeate education in general and teacher education, in particular, over the last decades, in their material and symbolic dimensions. The starting point is the analyses of the Project OYE, a proposal of distance education for Spanish-language teachers, announced in 2006 by the Sao Paulo State Department of Education, in partnership with the Santander Group and other Spanish private institutions. Texts and documents related to OYE were read by applying a discursive approach, which identified a process where the State dismisses the universities from their most valuable capitals in the educational field – namely, its academic culture and its pedagogical and scientific knowledge – and overshadows the universities to a merely accessory role in their proposal of teacher education. This process, which we have named a symbolic decapitalization of the universities, comes in a moment when the universities have already been financially decapitalized as a result of public investment being discharged from higher education thus adding up to the symbolic struggle for positions in the educational field. This process enhances the de-professionalization of teachers, that is, it leads to a diminished weight of the universities and higher education in the education of future teachers for basic schooling. Consequently, a technical a model associated with the new technologies is imposed, with hardly any connections with the university practices, the development of teacher autonomy, and intellectual work.Este artigo discute as relações de mercado que permeiam a educação e a formação docente nas últimas décadas, em suas dimensões materiais e simbólicas. Parte de análises acerca do Projeto OYE, proposta de formação de professores de espanhol a distância, anunciada em 2006 pela Secretaria de Educação do estado de São Paulo, em parceria com o Grupo Santander e outras instituições privadas espanholas. Ao realizar uma leitura de recorte discursivo de textos e documentos relacionados ao OYE, identifica um processo pelo qual o Estado destitui as universidades de seus capitais mais valiosos no campo educacional – a saber, sua cultura de tipo acadêmica e seus saberes pedagógicos e científicos - e as relega a um papel meramente coadjuvante em uma proposta de formação docente. Esse processo, que nomeamos como uma descapitalização simbólica das universidades, acompanha sua descapitalização financeira, desobrigando o investimento público em ensino superior e contribuindo com a luta simbólica por posições no campo educacional. Segue-se a esse processo o aprofundamento da desprofissionalização docente, isto é, uma diminuição do peso das universidades e do ensino superior na formação de futuros professores para a educação básica. O resultado é a imposição de um modelo de formação técnica, associada às novas tecnologias, desvinculada das práticas universitárias, da construção da autonomia docente e do trabalho intelectual