Formação Inicial de Professores de Química: Do contexto regional à proposição de uma formação autêntica fundamentada no Modelo Didático Pedagógico

Abstract

This doctoral research investigated the initial education of Chemistry teachers at public higher education institutions in the Western region of Paraná State (UNIOESTE, UFPR, IFPR, UNILA, and UTFPR). The Didactic-Pedagogical Model (MDP) was used as a lens to understand the teaching conceptions manifested in the formative processes and to propose an authentic formative MDP based on Freirean principles. The research, characterized by a mixed-method and interpretative approach, was developed in three articulated axes: survey, empirical-analytical study, and documentary analysis. The first axis consisted of measuring attitudes through a questionnaire applied to pre-service teachers, whose responses were analyzed using principal component analysis, allowing the identification of the Measured MDP. The second axis involved the content analysis of teaching activities designed by the participants, revealing the Manifested MDP. The third axis examined the graduate profile outlined in the Pedagogical Course Projects (PPC) of Chemistry degree programs, finding the Subsidized MDP. The integration of results occurred through triangulation and revealed the coexistence of distinct rationalities. The analysis of seven teaching dimensions (objectives, contents, student participation, methodology, assessment, interpersonal relations, and cyberculture) made it possible to characterize four types of MDP (Traditional, Technological, Spontaneous, and Investigative) and to understand their acceptance by pre-service teachers. The students’ productions revealed traits of spontaneous and emerging investigative movements, although traditional ideas predominated. In the graduate profiles, traditional and technicist conceptions prevailed, centered on the transmission of chemical knowledge, yet with peripheral openness to spontaneous and investigative tendencies. Thus, the formative field in the investigated Chemistry degree programs proved to be tensioned and ambiguous. These findings led to the proposition of the Didactic-Formative Model for Initial Chemistry Teacher Education (MDPA FIQ), conceived as an extension and update of García-Pérez’s (2000) model for the context of pre-service education. The MDPA FIQ is structured into seven interdependent dimensions: (1) Purpose of Education; (2) Role of the Pre-service Teacher; (3) Relationship with Chemical Knowledge; (4) Formative Methodology; (5) Reconceiving Assessment; (6) Relationship among University, School, Culture, and Technology; and (7) Formation of the Teacher-Researcher. The model integrates social, cultural, and pedagogical foundations anchored in Freire’s dialogicity, problem-posing, and transformative praxis, guiding a critical, investigative, and emancipatory teacher education. It is concluded that coherence between conceptions and practices forms an essential condition for the emergence of authentic and socially committed teacher education, capable of promoting the development of reflective and critical Chemistry teachers in the face of contemporary educational challenges.