1. Introduction

This work presents as a central theme to analyze how and to what extent the influences of Norbert Elias' thought have impacted and reverberated in the field of teacher education in Brazil. For this, an analysis based on the understanding of the academic production developed in this field was the central focus of the study, since this process can offer important indications about the use of sociological concepts in scientific research and in the production of knowledge for teacher education in the Brazilian context.

The current forms of social configuration have been undergoing transformations from the organization of contemporary societies, which are anchored in the dynamism and multiplicity of transformations triggered by new social configurations that re-signify the current social, political and economic structures (^{Bauman, 2007}). In the meantime, “[...] various fields of social interaction, such as work, professional training, the scientific production of new knowledge, educational processes, and the understanding of culture itself, among others, have increasingly become the target of numerous dilemmas” (^{Rufino; Souza Neto, 2021}, p. 67).

In this sense, we take as scope the educational field, specifically the universe that covers teacher education, which, due to its complexity, requires new problematizations related to its limits and possibilities, taking into account the new social configurations that emerge from contemporary societies. When analyzing this context, it is essential that we understand how they are developed and how the nuances existing in societies can impact the interdependencies of the different domains of knowledge (^{Rufino; Souza Neto, 2021}).

In this study, we will seek to analyze and thematize the appropriations of part of Norbert Elias' theoretical construct for the field of teacher education. Born in 1897 in Wrocław (Poland) and having achieved social recognition only at the end of his career, Elias became one of the most important and prominent sociologists of the twentieth century. His ideas, productions and analyzes contributed greatly to the consolidation of sociology, being, therefore, an important author whose impact has directly or indirectly influenced several fields of knowledge in various parts of the world.

^{Hunger, Rossi and Souza Neto (2011)} show that, although Elias does not directly address aspects involving teacher training in the educational field, his theories can be used in this field, since the configurational sociology¹ presented by Elias provides elements that enable the constitution of discussions about the formative process. However, studies that elucidate the impacts and contributions of such perspectives within the Brazilian scientific field are still lacking.

Elias seeks to break the duality between the individual and society, understanding that individuals are not separate from social processes, as the relationship between configurational subjects is established from a network of interdependence that materializes as socially constructed relationships (^{Leão; Landini, 2022}). Thus, considering the interconnection of the field of teacher education and the concept of configuration presented by Elias, the construction of being a teacher is consolidated from "[...] the different configurations in which they are immersed, as, according to Elias, people (teachers, parents, managers, ministers, students, etc.) shape their ideas based on all their experiences and, essentially, experiences lived within the group itself" (^{Hunger; Rossi; Souza Neto, 2011}, p. 667).

Among these "different configurations" that reverberate in the field of teacher education, ^{Silva, Montiel, and Pinheiro (2022)} highlight those future teachers understand the importance of policies that bring them closer to concrete pedagogical practice, in order to address possible gaps in effective teaching integration. For example, the authors refer to supervised curricular internships as a "third space of formation," functioning as a mediator between university and school. However, the sociological construct in light of Eliasian theories permeates such perspectives in a shallow manner, a fact that presents itself as a problematic issue that should be addressed by relevant literature.

Regarding the mechanisms that concern teacher training, ^{Souza Neto and Rufino (2022)} assert that, due to the complexity of the relationships, there is no clarity on what roles the university, school, university supervisors and basic education teachers should play in the processes of teacher training. This lack of definition can magnify the points of tension in this field.

In this context, ^{Silva and Souza (2022)} point out that the training processes must be well designed, so that they can contribute to the development of experiential knowledge, glimpsed from the intimate experience of the future teacher in the educational field. Furthermore, ^{Feitosa and Dias (2019)} present that there are tensions between teaching, research and extension in the university field, which intensify when these mechanisms are interconnected to educational structures with different dynamics, such as basic education. Thus, we can consider that a look at these different configurations that make up the processes of teacher education can contribute to the elucidation of problems related to the currently existing social relations, as well as to propose ways of transforming the tensions presented.

Therefore, this complex web of interdependence ends up developing very specific configurations within the field of teacher education, whose sociological perspectives of Elias can contribute with notes, problematizations and fundamental elucidations to the development of this universe.

Thus, we understand that social structures are composed of individuals who interact in a mutual way, in groups that have different configurations (with more or less individuals in their compositions), such as a village, a community, a tribe, a religious group, a city, etc., each with its level of complexity, a process that ^{Elias (1994)} calls “webs of interdependence”. Thus, both individuals and social structures must be understood from a macrosocial process that generates reciprocal dependence between individual and society, which Elias calls "multipolar control", which is configured as a device in which individuals and social groups suffer pressures from other individuals or groups. For ^{Elias (1994}, p. 51):

[...] An individual action is rarely self-sufficient. [sic]. It is usually oriented towards the actions of other people. In general, the meaning of an action for the actor is co-determined. [sic] by the meaning it assumes for others. People's relationships to each other are not additive. Society is not a heap of individual actions comparable to a mound of sand, nor is it an anthill of individuals programmed in the sense of a mechanical comparison. It resembles rather a web of people who, under a diversity of forms, are interdependent.

In fact, we emphasize that Norbert Elias' thought is anchored to the assumption that there is inseparability between individual and society, and it is not possible to analyze the individual without considering social contexts, and vice versa. In this sense, the dichotomy often presented by the traditional social sciences limits the analysis, in a macrosocial perspective, of social processes.

When considering this context, we can ask: what can the theories of Norbert Elias present to deepen the problematizations that involve teacher education? Understanding the development of the teacher education process is fundamental for us to reflect on the relationships triggered between educational agents and the social structure in which they are inserted.

The elements that involve teacher training are interconnected with Norbert Elias' idea of interdependence networks, since social relations between individual and individual, individual with society and society with individual are intrinsically connected from the establishment of relationships between the formative context (university) and the context of professional practice (school). Thus, the agents inserted in these relationships, such as public policy organizers, teacher trainers in universities, teachers in training, school teachers, among others, are configured from very specific and complex webs of interdependence, which need to be better understood. In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the Brazilian academic production on the use of Norbert Elias' theories in the field of teacher education, seeking to understand their main impacts and reverberations.

2 Methodology

This study is characterized as a systematic literature review. This methodological procedure allows the grouping of studies already produced, pointing out similarities and differences between the researches already carried out, allowing new discussions and interpretations (^{Botelho; Cunha; Macedo, 2011}). The methodology implemented has qualitative and descriptive characteristics, seeking to understand and interpret the conceptions of certain groups, analyzing the contexts of a phenomenon (^{Moura, 2021}).

The databases used were: Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (Lilacs), and the Periodical of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), using the descriptors: "Norbert Elias" AND "Teacher training", "Norbert Elias" AND "Teacher education", "Norbert Elias" AND "Continuing education", and "Norbert Elias" AND "Initial training". The use of these indexes and databases is justified by their ability to gather qualitative studies on the phenomenon addressed. We emphasize that the data collection took place in January 2023 and there was no time frame. Table 1 shows the number of articles found in each index and database.

It should be noted that the same work may appear in more than one database at the same time, so that the analysis of studies based on the stipulated criteria was curated. The inclusion criteria were: (I) works in Portuguese; (II) works dealing with Norbert Elias' contributions to discussions related to teacher education; (III) original or review articles. Exclusion criteria were: (I) articles that did not present discussions related to teacher education; (II) course completion papers, dissertations and theses.

Through the analysis in the databases, 93 articles were found. At first, we read the titles, in which 61 articles were excluded, because, from the analysis of the titles, we noticed that they were outside the scope of this study. After this step, we read the abstracts, at which time no study was excluded. After this procedure, the works were read in full, together with the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. At this stage, five articles were excluded for not meeting the stipulated criteria. In a last filtering process, 19 articles were excluded for duplication, thus leaving eight articles, which were included for the development of this research. Flowchart 1 presents the process of exclusion and inclusion of articles.

Source: Research data (2023).

Flowchart 1 Process of article inclusion and exclusion 

The articles were analyzed using the content analysis technique (^{Bardin, 2011}), considering three aspects: (I) pre-analysis, carried out from the previous and floating reading of the articles whose scope is close to the objective of this study; (II) material exploration, in which the texts were analyzed and the registration units and context units were organized; (III) treatment of the results: inference and interpretation, which comprise the description and interpretation of the data.

Given what ^{Sampaio and Mancini (2007)} presuppose, the articles were selected and reviewed by two independent researchers. In the case of divergences for the inclusion of the articles found, a fact that did not occur, a researcher outside the research would be invited to make the tiebreaker on the possible insertion of the text(s) in this study.

3. Results and Discussion

In this section, the results and discussions arising from the analysis of eight articles selected from the database searches will be presented (^{Fávero; Pagliarin, 2018}; ^{Rufino; Souza Neto, 2021}; ^{Silva Júnior et al., 2019}; ^{Silva Júnior; Both; Oliveira, 2018}; ^{Silva Júnior; Oliveira, 2018}; ^{Silva Júnior; Oliveira, 2021a}; ^{Silva Júnior; Oliveira, 2021b}; ^{Sobrinho; Kautsky; Pantaleão, 2018}).

The development of this study considered the objectives, results and discussions arising from the works found. From this process, the central discussion is based on the problematization of teacher education in Brazil using the theoretical constructs of Norbert Elias. Table 2 presents data from the articles included in this study.

At first, we can see that the use of Norbert Elias' theories in the field of teacher education is relatively recent, dating back to 2018. The fact that Elias did not take this phenomenon as the centrality of his studies may justify, albeit in part, this fact. However, the incursion of these theories into the educational field has as its backdrop the emergence of new reflections on the dynamics surrounding teacher education in Brazil, raised by the advancement in the use of technological resources and by the intersubjective singularities of individuals and social groups, built through civilizing processes that consider the increase in sensitivity in modern society (^{Koury, 2013}).

The texts found present objectives that seek to understand some specific elements, such as: (I) the power relations established in the educational field; (II) the construction of interdependence networks and their impacts on the dynamics of teacher education; (III) the configurations triggered in the supervised curricular internship; (IV) the possible contributions of Norbert Elias' theories to the understanding of the elements that make up teacher education in Brazil. The effort made by the authors seeks to present and understand the operational mechanisms that are limited to the field of teacher education in Brazil.

From the analysis of the articles, we realized that there are tensions in the field of teacher education in Brazil. We emphasize that power relations are triggered in the construction of the structures of Brazilian education, established according to the interests of dominant groups. These power relations delineate structural differences between higher education and basic education, evidencing themselves from differences such as training, wage and political practices, which lean in favor of higher education, consolidating themselves from differences in investment between these two fields. These processes contribute to imbalances in the levels of teaching performance and professional development (^{Silva Júnior; Oliveira, 2021b}).

In their scope, the works found shed light on the sociological processes in which the field of teacher training in Brazil has been constituted. Regardless of the specific field of analysis (Pedagogy, Physical Education, supervised curricular internship, etc.), the studies incite a fundamental debate today, in view of the need to reflect and understand the sociological configurations and relations in their genesis and development. At the same time, such manuscripts incite an important debate about the use of part of Norbert Elias' theoretical construct in an applied way, each within its specific cut.

^{Leão and Landini (2022}, p. 31), for example, show that power is “[...] an intrinsic component to relations of interdependence - one passes, therefore, from a concept of substance to a concept of relationship”. When considering the process of interdependence, ^{Elias (1980)} weaves some examples that express this social configuration. If we compare the relationship between parents and children, there is a well-demarcated power relationship, in which parents present the guidelines that must be followed. However, children also exert influence on parents from the moment that parents give in to certain perspectives of their children, that is, as webs of interdependence are created.

Thus, when there is great inequality in the balance of power, this differentiation is more apparent. When there is a certain balance in these relationships, there is a process of greater complexity of analysis. With regard to teacher education in Brazil, the way in which these relationships are established directly impacts the formative aspects of teachers, creating a network of interdependence between teacher education and cultural, political and social elements.

The impact of power relations can be seen in the study by ^{Silva Júnior, Both and Oliveira (2018)}. When conducting a research that aimed to analyze the existing configurations and the relationships established (at the university and at school) between Physical Education trainees and school agents in the development of the supervised curricular internship, the authors highlight that, although the trainees presented the perception of a good professional relationship with the people at school, they reported situations of prejudice and/or discomfort due to the fact that they are trainees. Thus, the interrelationships and interdependencies impact the actions of future teachers and supervising teachers. When evaluated, future teachers strengthen their social relations with school agents, giving in to mechanisms that often oppress them, such as the absence of the teacher holding the subject during the course of classes.

^{Silva Júnior and Oliveira (2021b)} emphasize that the configurations of supervised curricular internships, whether in university or in basic education, directly influence the processes of autonomy in performance and the pedagogical practice of future teachers during the internship. In this sense, the interdependencies fostered from the relationships between teachers and students can trigger positive or limiting formative experiences with regard to the relationships established between individuals within the formative process of future teachers (^{Silva Júnior et al., 2019}).

At the same time, ^{Silva Júnior and Oliveira (2021a)} aimed to investigate how the relationships between Physical Education interns (outsiders) and school agents (established) are established, in addition to seeking to identify the impacts of this aspect on the development of the supervised curricular internship, based on Norbert Elias' theoretical framework of established-outsider relationships. The authors show that there is a distance between the interns and the school agents during the supervised curricular internship. This aspect needs to be overcome, as this trigger inhibits the effective insertion of the future teacher in the educational and pedagogical processes inherent to teaching.

We can see that the perceptions of ^{Silva Júnior, Both and Oliveira (2018)} are in line with those of ^{Silva Júnior and Oliveira (2021a}, ^2021b), in which the authors understand that the coercive power relations established between the groups can trigger processes that hinder the full insertion of the future teacher in the operational mechanisms that involve their insertion into teaching. This idea is anchored in the discussions of ^{Elias and Scotson (2000)}, when the authors highlight that people who have more experience in a given environment (established) have a great influence on those who have been for less time (outsiders).

In this sense, the great unevenness of power in interdependence networks can lead to the transformation of the future teacher into an outsider. Once this individual is in initial training, they may receive stigmas from subjects with a higher hierarchical level. In this way, future teachers can be conceived as professionals of “inferior value”. This aspect can be evidenced while future teachers do not have cohesion power and are limited to complying with the regulations imposed by the established groups. Within the tension of social relations in school, understanding the different roles of beginning teachers and the configurations arising from their professional performance has been shown to be an important field of investigation in which Norbert Elias' theories can be of great value.

For example (hypothetically): a teacher in training arrives at a school unit to observe classes and understand the dynamics of the environment in which he/she is inserted. The titular teacher, holder of greater power, decides to leave the class in the hands of the future teacher. Thus, the future teacher has two paths: (I) he will denounce the fact to people hierarchically superior to both; (II) he will seek to "do his best" and strengthen ties with the established. ^{Elias and Scotson (2000)} highlight that the established have greater social control over the outsiders. This mechanism enables the amplification of deeper influences on future teachers, forcing them to submit to the dominant impositions.

With regard to teacher training, we realize that new configurations must be established, such as: (I) greater guidance to future teachers in their training process; (II) greater approximation of future teachers with the political-pedagogical aspects of the school; (III) expansion of the pedagogical experience time of the future teacher; (IV) promotion of continued training for teachers responsible for classes in schools. These operational mechanisms can resolve the distance between prospective teachers and teaching practice.

^{Silva Júnior and Oliveira (2018)} reinforce the idea that the university and the school are seen as spaces in which complex webs of interdependent and power relations are established. However, these spaces should approximate the relationships between the aspects that are part of teacher education, that is, create new webs of interdependence. In this sense, public policies should be established and promoted, with a view to developing new configurations that are more assertive with the reality of contemporary teaching performance.

In the same vein, ^{Silva Júnior et al. (2019)} emphasize that, depending on the exercise of power in establishing the settings, future teachers may have their training enhanced or inhibited. Each action taken has an impact on other elements and consequently on the realization of the processes that involve teacher training. Thus, the training process must be continuously analyzed and evaluated. These elements are indispensable for maintaining educational quality.

^{Rufino and Souza Neto (2021)} point out that the processes of interdependence between individuals and society cause a chain of tensions that are anchored to the interests of groups that excel in power relations. The authors point out that the processes of teacher education require new configurations that bring together the segments that involve basic education and higher education. In the meantime, for Norbert Elias' configuration theory, in modern societies, the processes of interdependence become increasingly evident.

We realized that power relations can direct teacher training. The way these relationships are developed can impact the quality of teacher education. Therefore, a coercive power relationship may inhibit the autonomy of the individual in training, hindering their intervention and creativity, subjecting them to strictly comply with the requests of dominant groups, often aligned with the development of demands based on bureaucratized processes by the educational system.

To understand the reverberations of the formative field, we highlight that Norbert ^{Elias (1994)} asserts that individual and social processes should not be understood as antagonistic assumptions. Their overlap triggers a driving force that impacts the behavioral development of the human being, fostering new social configurations that happen continuously and heterogeneously.

^{Elias (1994)} points out that the transformations in the social framework happened in the long term, based on a civilizing process that refined the behavior patterns of individuals and modified their behavioral structures. Thus, “[...] personality and society structures evolve in an indissoluble interrelationship”, in which changes “[...] in personality structures is a specific aspect of the development of social structures” (^{Elias, 1994}, p. 221).

As the dynamics related to the individual and society are transformed from their intertwining, social ties become closer, as we can see in the passage:

We depend on others; others depend on us. Insofar as we depend on others more than they on us, insofar as we are commanded by others, more than they by us, they wield power over us, whether we have become dependent by their use of brute force, or by our need to be loved, of money, healing, status, professional advancement, or simply by emotion (^{Elias, 1978}, p. 93).

The understanding of the civilizing (or civilizing) process gains a lot of prominence and can be presented as one of the most important legacies of Elias's theorization for the field of teacher education. In this sense, we can understand that the civilizing process advances and expands the sensitivity of individuals in relation to physical violence and narrows social relations, however power is inherent in these relations (^{Leão; Landini, 2022}). When considering the training field, we must understand teachers “[...] not as abstract beings, or essentially intellectual, but as essentially social beings, with their personal and professional identities, immersed in a group life in which they share a culture, deriving their knowledge, values and attitudes from these relationships” (^{Gatti, 2003}, p. 196).

^{Sobrinho, Kautsky and Pantaleão (2018)} attribute relevance to teacher training as an important tool for the development of educational policies. For the authors, the quality of the training offered, based on the collective dialogue, and the systematization of the formative-educational processes stimulate teachers in training to problematize the objective and subjective conditions that mark the accomplishment of the teaching work. With reinforcement, the authors emphasize that teacher education must precede the adoption of a theoretical-methodological approach that considers human faces and voices, outlining real social relations without losing sight of the historical and constitutive dynamics of individual and collective emotions.

^{Fávero and Pagliarin (2018)}, in turn, point out that we are experiencing new relationships between individuals, new forms of communication, learning and work. Individuals are inserted in a process of profound and permanent transformations in society. Accompanying these transformations is part of the individual inserted in society.

Thus, the new processes of interdependence that occur in different times and spaces, with different subjects, different social groups, in relationships with different individuals, impact the way each individual builds their learning (individual learning). This construction is only consolidated from its insertion and interaction in social groups (collective learning).

In the meantime, the authors point out that teacher education is anchored in the development of interrelationships between individual and individual and between individual and society. This perception is in line with the discussions of Norbert Elias, in which his theories seek to break the dichotomous duality between individual and society. Elias understands that individuals are inserted in a chain of interdependence that enables the strengthening of social relations, something central to the field of teacher education.

5 Final Considerations

In this sense, the objective of this study is to analyze the Brazilian academic production on the use of Norbert Elias' theories in the field of teacher education, seeking to understand their main impacts and reverberations. We found that the existing production, although relatively recent and still incipient in terms of quantity and depth, points out that teacher training has processes of interdependence between teachers in training and established teachers. If this power relationship is coercive, the teacher in training may have their training process negatively impacted, such as inhibiting their autonomy and creativity. We emphasize that interdependent relationships are not only established between individual and individual, but also between educational systems and individuals. The way teacher training is advocated, as an educational policy, can increase power imbalances, mechanizing the teacher in training.

The results also allow us to make considerations about the relationship between established and outsiders as a theoretical framework to discuss the relationship between prospective teachers and teachers in school units. Considering the importance of the supervised internship for teacher education, this formative stage should provide the future teacher with multiple experiences in the educational field. However, when coercive power relations emerge in this context, the future teacher is often understood as an inferior subject (outsider), in this sense, the future teacher is stuck with the dynamics that the regent teacher and the school impose, such as teaching classes without observing them and exclusively fulfilling bureaucratic demands, instead of experiencing the school field in a broad way.

We emphasize that the existing production understands teacher training as an essential process for expanding the quality of teaching, however there must be a rebalancing of power, expanding the autonomy of the teacher in training, enabling them to experience pedagogical situations and reflect critically on them. Thus, the operational mechanisms of the Brazilian educational field must resolve the coercive hierarchy of power, in order to provide concrete formative actions that reduce the tensions triggered in this field.

We noticed that there is a search to bring Norbert Elias' ideas closer to educational processes related to teacher education, which can contribute to discussions in the academic field. However, it is essential to foster new works, studies and scientific productions that can support these analyzes and contribute to the constitution of this field, given its potential, which still needs to be better explored in the Brazilian academic literature. Thus, it is necessary to broaden the discussions, fostering research that understands how interdependent relationships can be broadened and the imbalance of power between individual X individual X society can be reduced, bringing sociological views in the light of configurational theory to the heart of the social relations that happen throughout the formative processes in the educational field.