The Implications of Research as a Formative Space to Understand the Teaching Practice

Author(s):

Maria de Fátima Barbosa Abdalla

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 10C, Research on Continuous Professional Development and Teacher Qualifications

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

14:45-16:15

Room:

A1 336

Chair:

Isabel Rots

Contribution

This study aims at reflecting on the implications research has on understanding the teaching practice. From this perspective, our intention is to broaden the discussion opened in the research project entitled “Professional Development and Training of Teachers: learning about the profession”. Two problem-issues guided this investigation: How can the research contribute to quality in the work produced in the university and in the school? And which are the implications research on understanding the teaching practice? The 1st phase indicates how interns from different undergraduate courses were able to achieve solid educational backgrounds through research projects. The 2nd phase, which investigated the course followed by teachers in a Continued Education Program, points out to what extent research/action projects contribute to the continued education process. The 3rd phase, which included professors, focuses the research as an effective mechanism to understand the teaching practice. The common objectives were: to get to know the needs of interns/teachers and regarding the implications of research in this process. Based on the data that were collected, this paper aims at: first: surveying elements to justify the importance of research as a professional learning strategy, both in initial qualification and in continued education actions; second, understanding the extent to which research favors reflection on the practice, on its analysis, and transformation – new habitus, Bourdieu would say (1997, 1998); third, evaluating research and, particularly, research-action potential/limitations for the educators’ understanding of the knowledge that substantiates their pedagogical practices.

Method

From the methodological viewpoint: interns and teachers were mapped to identify the field schools and the projects; projects that emphasize research as a formative principle were selected; statements were gathered in these processes. And through qualification episodes and semi-structured interviews, it was possible to materialize the themes that were experienced to understand the teaching practice; furthermore, the memoirs and other records elaborated by the respective teachers and professors during the two years were analyzed.

Expected Outcomes

As partial results, a few “co-formation effects” were detected as the “principles of composition”: the pertinence of theory for practical reviews; new meaning to “thinking relationally;” a sensitive listening to claim researcher coherence and to imply the researchers epistemologically; the theorization to engage the “collective researcher”; strengthening autonomy for position-taking, allowing the forms of power, participation, and action to be enhanced in the school community. And this means to understand: (a) how our formation experiences went being produced; (b) that the formation goes through the action, knowledge production/construction and not through its consume; (c) the practice dimension as the nucleus of the teacher’s personal and professional development; (d) the context of the school as a locus for the teacher’s action; and (e) this is necessary to be in permanent commitment of a personal and professional updating in order to make of the teacher’s work a task which can change the world. Thus, thinking of the teaching profession as a learning process, a knowledge construction and as a formation and professional development.

References

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Author Information

Maria de Fátima Barbosa Abdalla

Santos Catholic University

Pos-Graduation

Santos

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