Obstáculos epistemológicos e pedagógicos acerca do conhecimento sobre a agua: (des)continuidades em narrativas de professores

Abstract

Schools and other educational spaces play a central role in the formation and development of individuals, constituting privileged environments for the construction of scientific knowledge. In the classroom context, strategies such as analogies, metaphors, and comparisons are frequently used to promote learning and content understanding; however, when not critically examined, they may constitute obstacles to scientific knowledge. In light of Gaston Bachelard’s epistemology (1996), which discusses the presence of epistemological obstacles such as first experience, general knowledge, verbal obstacle, unitary and pragmatic knowledge, substantialist, realist, animist, and quantitative knowledge, this qualitative study aims to understand the narratives of a group of female teachers regarding their teaching practices related to the water theme and the epistemological and pedagogical obstacles present in these practices. This thesis is organized in a multipaper format comprising four articles. The first analyzes the historical construction of scientific knowledge about water, from ancient civilizations to contemporary science, based on the stages of scientific thought proposed by Bachelard, outlining an epistemological profile that highlights ruptures and transformations over time. The second article presents a documentary analysis of the Brazilian National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC), discussing its implications for teacher education from a Bachelardian epistemological perspective and highlighting the potential emergence of epistemological obstacles arising from pedagogical practices derived from its interpretation. The third article investigates epistemological zones related to water that emerge in teachers’ narratives, based on narrative interviews conducted with five teachers working in technical secondary education and higher education, selected through an adapted snowball sampling method. The results indicate the predominance of technical-scientific and spatial epistemological zones, particularly in the treatment of the hydrological cycle. The fourth article analyzes teachers’ experiential narratives, revealing the recurrence of obstacles related to first experience, general knowledge, verbal and realist obstacles, as well as students’ difficulties in understanding non-directly observable processes such as evaporation and infiltration. Overall, the findings indicate that epistemological obstacles significantly influence the construction of scientific knowledge about water, reinforcing the need for pedagogical practices that promote epistemological ruptures, value students’ prior knowledge, and foster critical reflection. This thesis is expected to contribute to the field of Science Education by expanding discussions on Bachelardian epistemology and its implications for teaching the water theme and for teacher education.