Axis 1: Paulo Freire in teacher training

In the productions analyzed in this axis, it appears that the main problem is the disconnect between pedagogical training and training for the specific area in training courses for Natural Science teachers. According to ^{Nascimento (2011}, p. 29), “[...] the idea of dichotomy seems to prevail, as if, in addition to the precedence of one over the other, they could exist independently”. This central issue is related to at least two questions. The first refers to Teacher Training Policies (policies addressed to the area), while the second is guided by the analysis of course projects and interviews/questionnaires with undergraduates and professors, indicating internal problems in teacher training courses in Science.

Regarding the first axis (Teacher Training Policies), two works were found centrally dedicated to the theme. ^{Silva (2018)} investigated the presence/absence of categories of Paulo Freire's pedagogy in the National Curriculum Guidelines for Teacher Training in Licentiate Courses and in the Guidelines that guide the Pedagogical Projects (PPCs) of teaching courses in Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB). Even though this is not a discussion addressed only to licentiate courses in Natural Sciences, its conclusions are important to our discussion. The author found evidence of Freirean categories in the documents that guide the policy of teacher training and the institution. However, the author states that the documents did not express the central elements of Freirean pedagogy, which are related to the commitment to a liberating education. Thus, the use of Freirean categories in official documents could be understood as “discursively effective” and did not effectively express “[...] concern with the social order and the transformation of the individual and the world” (^{SILVA, 2018}, p. 91).

This “disconnection” is also presented by ^{Lunardi et al. (2013)} when they analyze the critical perspectives in works on the training of educators in the area of Science Teaching. For the authors, critical ideas/references were often presented in an isolated and disconnected way from the understanding of education and training as political and pedagogical acts.

Less centrally, Freire's work is identified as a critical perspective in the research by ^{Campos et al. (2017)}, in which the objective was to understand the concepts involved in the construction and formation of a critical individual committed to a just society. According to the production, themes such as critical pedagogy, the school classicist character, praxis, dialogue between the teacher and the student and between the student and the teacher and society, scientific knowledge, reflection and action, domination aspect, and historical development are necessary themes for the strengthening of teacher training.

Therefore, Freire's contributions are important to teacher education in the sense of thinking of man as an unfinished being, a “being more”, capable of encouraging “[...] problematization, dialogicity and awareness” (^{CAMPOS et al., 2017}, p. 7). It is an educational understanding centered on the relationship between awareness and liberation, a collective process of deconstructing irrationalisms and common sense to enhance the interests of those oppressed (^{BOTELHO, 2016}; ^{FREIRE, 1987}).

As stated by ^{Botelho (2016}, p. 94):

For education to reach its most radical end for Freire, it also has to be fundamentally a process of humanization. It is not just biological man that Freire is talking about. It belongs to man, a biological and cultural being. As such, a being multiple builds different relationships with the world and others, so that being recreates and transforms themself in these relationships. The interpretative power of humanization in Freire's terms is precisely at this point: because they are capable of perceiving and recreating themself as a being that consciously transforms themself and transforms the world, the human being has, in relation to humanization, an intrinsic value. [...] An educational project that is not able to serve this purpose and organize its practices, means, and purpose for this purpose is irreconcilable with the Freirean educational project.

Concerning the second axis (Contributions of Freire's pedagogy to Science teaching), the works found were more specifically dedicated to understanding how the Freirean legacy has been part of initial teacher training courses, of Political-Pedagogical Projects (PPP), the syllabi of the Curricular Units or even the pedagogical proposals.

Silva's thesis (2017) aimed to understand the Freirean Dialogic Education (EDF) in license courses at the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) based on course documents and interviews with professors, who stated that they did not recognize Freire's pedagogical proposal as a direct reference. Regarding the analyzed documents, few references to Freire's works were found, among them the concept of dialogicity. However, according to the author, this concept is presented, for the most part, superficially and intuitively.

It should be noted, then, that Freire understands dialogue as a force that drives critical-problematizing thinking and that enhances the possibility of looking at the world and our existence in society as an unfinished and changing reality. In this sense, Freire forges the theory of dialogicity based on the understanding that dialogue is fundamental in the educational process since it is part of the communication between subjects, who know it is mediated by the world. To ^{Freire (1996}, p. 63):

Teacher training should insist on the constitution of this necessary knowledge and that makes me certain of this obvious thing, which is the undeniable importance that the ecological, social, and economic reality in which we live has on us. And to the theoretical knowledge of this influence we would have to add the theoretical-practical knowledge of the concrete reality in which teachers work. I already know, without a doubt, that the material conditions in which and under which students live shape their understanding of their own world, their ability to learn, to respond to challenges. Now I need to know or open myself to the reality of these students with whom I share my pedagogical activity. I need to become, if not absolutely intimate with their way of existing, then at least less strange and distant from it. And the decrease in my strangeness or my distance from the hostile reality in which my students live is not a question of pure geography. My openness to the negating reality of their project as people is a matter of real adherence on my part to them and to their right to exist.

Zaneti et al. (2019) discuss the insertion of Critical Pedagogies in undergraduate courses in Biological Sciences in federal institutions located in the state of São Paulo, based on the analysis of documents, teaching plans for mandatory subjects, and analysis of the PPP. Among the universities surveyed, the authors found that the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) was the institution that presented the highest number of didactic-pedagogical courses. However, this institution also had the lowest number of courses with the inclusion of works/authors from the critical field. Considering the didactic-pedagogical disciplines of all analyzed universities, the most cited authors were Dermeval Saviani (Historical-Critical Pedagogy) and Paulo Freire (Liberating Pedagogy). On the other hand, the authors conclude that there is “[...] a low expressiveness of the critical influence in the didactic-pedagogical disciplines in the license courses in Biological Sciences of Federal Institutions of the State of São Paulo” (ZANETI et al., 2019, p. 7).

^{Santos (2015)} brought to the debate the issue of Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) in the initial training of the Science teachers based on the dialogue during the Supervised Internships. According to the author, the thematization proposed by Freire begins through the conscientizing practice, and this, in turn, does not comprise a naive conscientization, which is related only to the apprehension of reality. Thematization requires a programmatic content that can be built through the educator's own vision.

Still, about the Internship, Leite's (2015) thesis investigated the possibility of Supervised Internships in the Chemistry degree course being developed from a problematizing perspective, comprising the conceptions and practices of the interns, together with the factors that collaborate or hinder the development of this methodology while teaching Chemistry. ^{Leite (2015)} revealed that the investigated subjects understand the teaching-learning process from the transmission-reception logic. Thus, educational institutions are “fed” by valuing the dominance of some over others and, as a result, influence the conceptions and actions of the subjects who are formed by them.

The thesis also emphasizes the need for curricular changes to guarantee the identity of the teacher training course, integrating theory and practice with the particularities of teachers' work in the specific subject. In addition, the author states that it is necessary to overcome the model of teachers as only executors of decisions defined by other instances.

^{Silveira and Zanetic (2016)} use children's works by Monteiro Lobato, especially Serões de Dona Benta, to identify passages where specific approaches to chemical knowledge appeared, interpreted following Paulo Freire's pedagogy. The grandmother/teacher makes it clear that shape is not training, teaching is not just transferring knowledge, trying to change the view on teaching that undergraduates have when they start at the university, which is, in most cases, based on a traditional conception of education. Thus, especially the subjects with a pedagogical approach in the degree courses in Natural Sciences are of great relevance in the construction of a broader vision of education, the school, and the teaching-learning process.

Axis 2: Teacher training and Science teaching: an approach between Science, Technology and Society (STS) and generating themes

When discussing Science teaching, it is important to highlight that Freire's educational understanding is focused on questioning to overcome the repetition or recognition of knowledge. Without taking away the relevance of knowledge historically produced and socialized in the format of teaching subjects, Freire understands that education must be based on local problems and their conflicts, to “[...] build understandings and sociability resistant to the dominant logic to hierarchize knowledge in the name of the instituted power and to make consciences docile to accept the contradictions in which they are socially and historically found” (^{BOTELHO, 2016}, p. 106). This understanding has been the basis for the development of teaching approaches and methodologies, such as the STS approach and the generating themes, as we also identified in the literature survey.

It should be noted that the STS approach emerged as a curricular renewal movement. The main objective was to prepare citizens capable of judging and evaluating the possibilities, limitations, and implications of the development of scientific and technological training in schools, the processes that involve Science teaching and learning. The Freirean perspective is then highlighted significantly in the development of activities based on the STS perspective, to provide training focused on the subjects' emancipation.

As ^{Lopes (2013)} points out, although Freire does not make specific references to the STS perspective and Science teaching, it is possible to make connections based on concepts from Freire's works, such as epistemological curiosity. According to ^{Lopes (2013)}, in the Freirean approach, it is considered that knowledge from experience is the starting point for the practice of dialogic education. In this sense, “[...] the interest of the students is directly linked to their experiences and must be foreseen in the organization of the contents, contained in the school curriculum” (^{LOPES, 2013}, p. 209).

The research carried out by ^{Jesus (2017)} on the contextualization of Chemistry teaching through the STS approach linked to Paulo Freire's pedagogy stands out. According to the researcher, the use of generating themes contextualizes teaching. So it is necessary to know the student, recognizing them as individuals who are part of the social sphere (^{JESUS, 2017}). The teacher, therefore, plays the role of a mediator of education, contributing to the formation of a critical student. A problem, however, pointed out by ^{Jesus (2017)} is that, although there are works that articulate Paulo Freire and STS, they are not effectively incorporated into the classes.

^{Vacheski (2016)}, in turn, analyzes the teacher training process of students in the undergraduate course in Chemistry at a state university. The author points out that the use of themes and materials that contemplate relationships between science, technology, and society contributes to the formation of subjects capable of taking a stand and participating in controversial and current discussions in society.

It is also worth mentioning the research by Fernandes and Gouvêa (2019), which presents an analysis of different perceptions and appropriations of Science teachers on the STS perspective. According to the study, teachers have difficulty understanding and, above all, applying the principles of the STS approach, Freire's contextualization and proposal, as also indicated by ^{Jesus (2017)}.

^{Neres and Gehlen (2018)} identify studies that use Freire's assumptions in proposing formative processes for Science teachers and analyze how the Thematic Investigation stages are inserted in the context of initial and continued teacher training. These surveys aim to minimize problems in the school context, contributing to a curricular reconfiguration accompanied by reflections on teaching training and practice. According to the authors, the theoretical-methodological assumptions of problematizing and dialogical education, conceived by Paulo Freire, are used in Science teaching, in proposals focused on curricular reconfiguration, such as the Freirean Thematic Approach (^{DELIZOICOV; ANGOTTI; PERNAMBUCO, 2011}) and Curriculum Praxis Through a Generator Theme (^{SILVA, 2004}).

Specifically about the Generator Theme, ^{Silva (2015)} reinforces that its nature is dialogical and problematizing and can be understood as a starting point for a didactic-pedagogical organization that promotes a critical view of the world, that is, in which there is the promotion of the passage from the “naive curiosity” of the students to the “epistemological curiosity” (^{FREIRE, 1975}).

Axis 3: Paulo Freire, teacher training and political education

Although Freire's work is based on the understanding of education as a political act, few productions were found when researching the relationship between teacher training in Science and political education. This result, however, is not surprising, since a kind of “dichotomy” persists between specific and pedagogical areas in many undergraduate courses in the area of Natural Sciences.

^{Fortuna (2015)}, in her dissertation, states that Freire's perspective regarding the training of educators is imbued with practices that promote autonomy, emancipation, and self-criticism. Other important aspects rescued by the author refer to the concepts of humanization, liberating education, and education as a political act. As such, education, in addition to the formative/pedagogical role, assumes a political, ethical, social, and historical role in the human constitution and the humanization.

^{Nicolodi and Silva (2016)} report experiences with students from a class of licensing in Sciences and a class from the 9th-grade students on the coast of Paraná, supported by Freire's pedagogy. Through shared teaching⁴, the authors present their perceptions about the mediation processes in teacher education and human education.

Despite the limitation of articles on the subject, we noticed that the issue is raised in most of the selected works about teacher training. Some even indicate limits in the development of critical thinking in the Science teachers' training and the need for changes. However, the discussion does not occupy a central place of inquiry or is presented abstractly.