REINVENTING TEACHER TRAINING: A DEMOCRATIC AND EMANCIPATORY EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Abstract

This article presents the development of a lifelong learning program developed with the participation of teachers, members of School Councils and the wide school community of nine Field Education Units in the township of Araucária, state of Paraná, Brazil. The main goal of this article is to discuss the possibilities or provocations that can be created by a training process, which signalizes an intentionality in the implementation and/or advancement of democratization in Field Education. The methodology used consisted of qualitative research, based on the method of participant research, with the aim of gathering data on discussion groups and performing participant observation. This process was complemented by document analysis, and field diaries were written during the research, to be used in a posterior systematization. The main theoretical basis of this study was grounded in Freire (1996, 1979), Lima (2010), Marcelo (2010), Paro (2016) and Brandão (1993). The main result of the research was the discovery of a need for more lifelong learning programs directed toward Field Education. It was also found that, in these activities, teachers collectively rediscover their power and professional capability of performing and proposing another kind of training. Additionally, they were able to propose objective conditions for a professional teaching performance, reflecting the taking of a democratic stance toward human emancipation.