Professores de geografia em início de carreira: principais desafios relacionados ao contexto da formação e atuação inicial docente.

Abstract

This work, the result of a Research Project that studies the initiation to teaching, has as its main purpose to analyze the beginning of the professional career of geography teachers, considering their initial formation pathways and the challenges related to the context of performance where they are inserted, and more specifically: Investigate the contributions of initial education to professional teaching performance, in order to identify the challenges resulting from the disparities between the knowledge built in undergraduate education and the school reality; Understand how the working conditions, experienced in everyday life at school, can hinder or facilitate the work of the beginning teacher, and Identify the main difficulties of the beginning teacher related to the social, political and economic context in which they are inserted. The teachers, protagonists of the research, are licensed by the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), campus Cajazeiras - PB, and has a maximum of three years of experience. The theoretical framework on which the research is based involves contributions on issues related to teacher education and the initial period of the Geography teacher's professional activity. Regarding the methodological choice, we opted for a predominantly qualitative approach research, developed through a case study. The collection of analysis material was developed in two steps. In the first step, we applied a questionnaire to a group of five teachers, with the objective of characterizing their profile. In the second stage, we conducted the investigation through semi-structured interviews, based on the personal, formative and professional trajectory of the teachers, the reasons that guided the choice of the Degree in Geography as a Higher Course, and the main difficulties felt in the early period of the career. The research results revealed, among other aspects, that the academic formation has been, in many moments, far from the practical reality in which the teachers will act, resulting in the worsening of the “reality shock” and triggering a series of difficulties that affect the professional physically, mentally and emotionally. Due to this, the importance of projects, policies and programs that support and promote the personal / professional development of teachers from the initial formation and in the early years of the teaching career is evident.