Metodologias de formação docente no ensino remoto: a compreensão das professoras do ensino fundamental I

Abstract

This research, conducted within the Graduate Program in Education (PPGEDUC) at the Federal University of Catalão (UFCAT), analyzed the understandings of elementary school teachers (Grades 1–3) regarding the professional development courses offered by the Municipal Department of Education (SME) of Catalão, Goiás, during the period of “remote 'teaching'” amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The term “remote 'teaching'” is presented in this study in accordance with Saviani and Galvão (2021), who problematize its use for not fully reflecting the intrinsic characteristics of the school pedagogical process.With a qualitative approach, the study employed a group interview conducted at the participants’ request, enabling the collective construction of ideas, dialogue between different experiences, and the capture of nuances that could be lost in individual interviews. Five teachers working in Grades 1, 2, and 3 of elementary school participated, the sample being defined based on the educational policy for the literacy cycle. Data analysis was guided by Paulo Freire’s theory of pedagogical praxis, which advocates the articulation of critical reflection and action as a means to transformative education.The analysis was organized around four central themes that emerged from the teachers’ accounts: the challenges of adapting to “remote 'teaching'”; the SME-provided training and institutional support; the pandemic’s impact on the teaching–learning process; and the blaming of families. These themes reveal not only the difficulties encountered but also the adaptation strategies adopted by the teachers and the implications of these experiences for the educational context, showing that the pandemic not only introduced new challenges but also exacerbated longstanding structural problems in public education, particularly in the context of “remote 'teaching'.”The findings indicate that the offered trainings had a technocratic/technical orientation, disconnected from school realities, thereby shifting responsibility for school failure onto teachers and families. Nonetheless, the teachers demonstrated resilience and sought strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s effects on student learning. It is concluded that teacher training programs require reformulation toward a critical, participatory model that values teacher agency and helps address educational challenges. In this regard, Freire emphasizes that teaching demands respect for the autonomy of the learner — a principle that should also inform teacher education, understood as a process that forms critical, transformative subjects — a view that complements Saviani’s proposal for training committed to social transformation through participatory and emancipatory formative practices.