“A gente consegue ir ao livro já vendo coisas que antes não percebia”: formação docente continuada e novos modos de pensar e ler o livro infantil ilustrado

Abstract

Considering the peculiarities of the illustrated children's book, characterized by the integration of verbal and visual languages within a material medium in which multiple elements convey meaning, bringing implications for reading and reading mediation, as well as the relevance of continuous teacher education to foster the knowledge and know-how involved, this research aimed to investigate, through a continuing teacher education initiative, the development of teachers’ abilities to understand the illustrated children's book and read it proficiently. The study was grounded in theoretical contributions mainly from the field of critical theory on the illustrated children's book (Nikolajeva & Scott, 2011; Colomer, 2017; Ramos, 2017, 2020; Linden, 2011; Salisbury & Styles, 2013) and the critical-reflective perspective on teacher education (Gatti, 2008, 2017; Dalvi, 2021; Oliveira-Formosinho, 2009; Freire, 2001; Imbernón, 2009). The research, conducted in a virtual environment and structured in four stages of data production, involved twelve female teachers working in various grades of the first stage of elementary education across eight public school systems. Initially, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore their understanding of the illustrated children's book and how they approached it in pedagogical practice. These interviews revealed a lack of awareness regarding the book’s specificities and the material and paratextual elements that compose it and contribute to its storytelling. This diagnostic informed the planning and implementation of eleven training sessions. Based on the analysis of various works, the sessions focused on the features of the illustrated children's book, particularly the relationship between its material and narrative aspects, and on its reading. Guided by dialogue, intersubjective exchanges, and effective strategies for mediating knowledge construction, the sessions promoted an understanding of the specificity of the illustrated book and an awareness that its different material elements contribute to storytelling. Following the training, discussions were held with three pairs of teachers about the formal composition and reading of a title selected by the researcher. These discussions demonstrated the acquisition of knowledge that enabled the teachers to attend to important aspects of the book’s material and narrative structure, thus allowing for a deeper and more proficient reading. In the final stage, the teachers selected and presented titles, demonstrating both the ability to choose high-quality illustrated children's books and to read them with attention to the multiple material elements that contribute to meaning-making. The training experience confirmed the relevance of continuous teacher education in helping teachers develop broader ways of understanding the peculiarities of this type of book. This foundation expanded their ability to assign meaning to it and to reflect on effective ways to guide its reading in pedagogical practice. By reinforcing the need for reading mediators in ongoing education contexts to have access to knowledge and information that can broaden their understanding and practices regarding the illustrated children’s book, the study emphasized the importance of such training as a space conducive to critical thinking about pedagogical practice—a fundamental condition for the construction of new ways to carry it out. Thus, the study demonstrated that a broader understanding of this type of book began to inform teachers' reflections on how to select and use it for the purpose of fostering children’s reading development, an essential and necessary requirement for enhancing its use in the early years of elementary education.