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Introduction
Humans, as social beings, have used language to interact and communicate with their peers since remote times. The approximation and coexistence in groups, more than an option, is shown as a need for survival, evolution and strengthening of the species.
In coexistence in groups, there is the approximation and strengthening of ties that are established with a view to remedying internal demands. However, with the evolution of society, isolation in restricted groups became impracticable, given the global interdependence in force in contemporary society.
The expansion in the interaction between different groups has intensified the dynamics in human relationships, reaching different corners of the planet. Using the internet, groups and individuals from different parts of the planet can communicate, establishing connections with each other. In this way, society weaves a network of interactions, constituted both by ties arising from more intimate and strong relationships, in family and related nuclei, as well as by weaker and more fragile ties, resulting from occasional and fluid approaches.
Considering this interactive dynamic, in this article we analyze, with a focus on the school educational environment, aiming to identify, in the narratives of Basic Education teachers, working in an elementary school, elements that reveal the construction processes of their pedagogical practices daily, considering the social network with which they establish constant and continuous exchange relationships.
Throughout their professional trajectories, we searched, through information encounters and mismatches, which are the positions revealed, the guidelines and regulations that they indicate as potential for professional development in this dialogic process.
Understanding the potential of teacher development as an autonomous and investigative construction in face of reality, we proposed to the participants of this research to tell us about their pedagogical practices carried out during the school year and about the partnerships established for the realization of this undertaking, expressing their intentions, challenges, and reflections in front of the lived experiences.
The narratives produced by the teachers have represented a powerful instrument in the sense of assisting in the training processes of these professionals and, taking them as empirical material in educational research, it is possible for the participant to expose and materialize, whether in written or oral form and from an individual perspective, the various elements related to everyday school life and pedagogical practices.
By proposing the analysis of teachers' narratives in this research, aiming to identify the training networks of teachers through the ties established by them in the social dynamics, we intend to present possibilities for reflection to those who elaborate teacher education policies, based on incentives to expand the scientific repertoire and cultural and in promoting the dissemination and socialization of promising practices among professionals in work. With this, we understand how possible to improve educational networks and strengthen the bases for the autonomous and investigative development of the teacher.
The Networks
The concept of networks emerged from systemic thinking as a way of understanding science. Initially, it was observed in living organisms, then in biomes and ecological ecosystems (CAPRA, 2014). In recent decades, the concept of networks has come to be used to think about aspects of social life and, in a broad way, the connection that exists throughout society, through complex thinking (MORIN, 2008).
Networks take many forms. They can be verified both on the collective plane, in the relationship between living beings and the environment; as in the individual organization of each being, as a macrosystem formed by organs and cells.
Social networks, specifically, are formed by the articulation of people or groups in communication processes, affective relationships, or information distribution, having been enhanced by advances in information and communication technologies (FUSER, 2003).
Technically, networks are composed of nodes, which can be represented by circles. Nodes are people or groups that pursue a common goal, responsible for the size of the network. Loops or edges, represented by lines, connect two or more nodes. And the flows existing in these connections indicate the direction of the link, which can be unidirectional, bidirectional or, in the absence of flows, imply the inexistence of links, thus configuring an isolated node in the network (FIALHO, 2014).
The functioning of networks, on the other hand, occurs through triangulation, so that the nodes that compose it do not face each other when in contradiction. In this case, these contents interact with a 3rd node, then with a 4th and others, successively. In a process outlined in this way, contradictions are dislodged and fixed positions are transformed, in an intense and dynamic flow (FUSER, 2003).
In general, networks are irregular, flexible, able to change, move, make, and remake themselves continuously, being constituted horizontally. When dealing with social networks, we can say that they provide a climate of respect, trust, and exchange and, fundamentally, remaining open in relation to learning (MONTAÑO, MARTINEZ, TORRE, 2017).
Among the components of networks, ties can provide important information, depending on the characteristics they present to each other. According to Portugal (2007), the edges or ties in social networks can be characterized as strong or weak, positive and negative, active, passive and mixed.
About the strong and weak ties, Kaufman (2012), a researcher on relationship networks, developed researches differentiating and characterizing each of these ties. Initially, the author highlighted the importance of strong ties in the stability and security of individuals' lives. Later, he resumed studies on relationships in networks and emphasized the importance of the weak ties that exist there, as responsible for the innovation and articulation of individuals to different experiences and formations. According to their studies, if there is an absence of weak ties in the networks, there is a tendency to isolation and confinement in restricted and stable nuclei (GRANOVETTER, 1983, apudKAUFMAN, 2012).
Agier (2011) analyzed the sociability networks that started from a specific and territorialized nucleus, constituted by strong bonds of trust and reciprocity existing in the family, in the neighborhood, in the work groups, which were articulated and expanded into multi-local networks. He observed that, although sociability networks allow the interaction of the microsocial with the spheres of social macrostructures representing collective identities, the ties remained linked to the relational values of origin (AGIER, 2011).
Despite the importance of weak ties in expanding perspectives and innovations, identities are resistant to transformations, as they turn to networks of strong ties in search of security and support.
School educational networks, on the other hand, are based on a concept of sustainable training for the entire educational community. The knowledge produced in them, aiming at this sustainable formation, must be like the concept of collective intelligence, presented by Lévy (2003). Such intelligence mobilizes the different competences, understanding them in their multiplicities, which must be distributed among all, promoting the deterritorialization of knowledge, maintaining interconnections of different geographic spaces.
Thus, work in educational networks must be coordinated and agreed upon, which increases the ability of teachers to act, as it promotes collaborative actions, which increase the sense of belonging to the school community and strengthen the sense of professional security. For Montaño, Martinez and Torre (2017, p. 653), by incorporating information and building new shared meanings in networks, teachers begin to substitute individual and solitary acting practices for collective and integrated work.
Given the training potential verified in educational networks, they began to be used by control systems and bodies, under different conceptions: the utilitarian, with the aim of intervening in reality and obtaining certain results, and the analytical conception, which seeks to better understand the characteristics networks in a structural approach. There are educational systems that try to implement educational networks in their educational reforms, proposing rules and objectives designed from the outside into the network, aiming to meet government demands and breaking with the conception of the networks' own horizontal organization (LIMA, 2015). In this article, we will highlight the networks constituted from the demands of the individuals themselves and the groups that participate in them, in spontaneously constituted relationship networks.
There are formal educational networks, organized with the intention of reaching certain goals, and informal networks, whose existence is spontaneously triggered, based on the demands and needs of groups or individuals. Informal networks act in a way peculiar to power structures and anticipate the others, in order to represent engines driving change (FUSER, 2003).
For researcher Alves (2017), who studies the daily life of Education, educational networks in their multiplicity allow the coexistence of the practical and theory binomial, triggering dialogic educational processes with dynamic, continuous and constant potential, capable of keeping up with the pace of events in the daily life of school relationships.
Narratives
Language is a factor that constitutes man through his social and communicative function (VIGOTSKY, 2007), according to the social interactionist conception. In this process of expression and communication, the human being builds, and it builds the world, creating signs and meanings of its social groups, interacting with the context, producing cultural repertoires.
Discoveries, lived experiences, and knowledge accumulated by people are left to their descendants through the record. The next generation, in turn, contributes to this legacy, extending it. This movement configures both horizontal relations of communication between people belonging to the same historical moment, and vertical ones, between subjects from different historical times, who communicate through records (AGUIAR, 2004).
Before the emergence of writing, when society's communicative processes were based on oral culture, vertical relationships happened more slowly, as they depended on the interaction between older and younger people, so that the knowledge constructed by humanity could be socialized. In this period of history, the oldest, according to Lévy (2008), were the main sources of practical, mythical, and ritual knowledge. His death could be compared to the burning of a library in a literate society.
In our everyday life, both verbal and non-verbal languages are present and processed by the brain in different ways. Spoken or written language, as a verbal language (word), involves logical, rational, and systematized activities, while the various non-verbal languages, such as music, colors, shapes, dance, do not emit objective messages, but express themselves in its entirety metaphorically and symbolically (AGUIAR, 2004).
Despite this distinction between the forms of language, during the communication process, they occur simultaneously and complement each other. In other words, the articulated language, which enables the existence of languages, is complemented by non-verbal language expressed by sensory images: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and taste.
As human beings start to verbalize, they become able to produce texts, defined as verbal segments that function as units of meaning in human intercommunication (AZEREDO, 2011). Broadly, we can understand as texts all cultural objects, verbal or not, that refer to a cultural code, capable of expressing meaning, such as fashion, literature, crafts, newspapers, among other means (AGUIAR, 2004).
With the advancement of technologies and transformations in society, communication between people has undergone several changes in terms of form and content. The pace of dissemination of information was accelerated, events are reported in real time and the media centralize communication processes. As a result, at the end of the 20th century, with the advent of the Internet, the textual language revolution took place (CASTELLS, 2016).
If with the emergence of writing, a sense of linearity to oral communicative processes appears, with the insertion of writing in cyberspace, the linearity was altered by the multiple possibilities offered by hypertext.
Despite presenting some linearity, not completely breaking with the organization of the languages used by humanity, which are structured by syntax, semantics and pragmatics, hypertext is more flexible in terms of hierarchization in visual, discursive aspects and in terms of information units (XAVIER, 2005).
In hypertext, the reader is invited to assume an active posture, different from traditional texts, using non-linear and non-sequential paths, with interactive interfaces in which the reader, based on their choices, can access different content, stored in a network of nodes that are connected, tracing paths of self-interest, and oscillating between different digital documents.
Given the characteristics of hypertext, we suggest a parallel between its form of organization and that of narratives, considering them a textual genre, which has been used in educational research and in the training processes of teachers. Despite generally maintaining linearity in the form of oral or written expression, the narrative, as to its content, follows the subjective path of memory and the semantic networks proper to the functioning of the human mind.
The production of narratives generally starts from a proposal related to the life story or teaching practices and is conceived by subjective and reflective ways, in which the memory of facts, people, feelings and sensations is related to thoughts, postures, theories and conceptions of life of each writer. Being unique, the narratives are related to the representation of each subject's reality, and their characteristics hold meanings to be pedagogically explored (CUNHA, 1997). The use of narratives in the presentation of life stories or as a training practice proves to be very fertile and provides the exercise of self-reflection, contributing to the personal development and self-worth of its writers (PASSOS, 2010).
The potential formative of narratives is not limited to individual elaborations. According to Almeida e Megid (2017), the narrative can be written collaboratively, in a virtual environment as a training space, with the participation of teachers who interact and discuss conceptual and pedagogical aspects.
There are several national and international authors who have theorized about the use of narratives in Education, including: Clandinin and Connely (2011), Josso (2004), Galvão (2005), Cunha (1997), Dutra (2002), Freitas and Fiorentini (2007), Passos (2010), Rodrigues and Prado (2015), Almeida e Megid (2017), Abreu (2019), among others.
Research using narratives allows those involved to actively participate in the investigative construction, which may reveal more democratic characteristics in the construction of knowledge in the field of Teacher Education.
In teacher education, the knowledge built at the university seeks to provide the development of systematized, scientific and methodological knowledge. However, teacher education is more comprehensive and needs reflective knowledge. A dialogue established with theories, teaching practices of peers, in a dialogic movement between the self and the collective, enables the teacher to continue training and build a professional identity (ABREU, 2019).
In search of alternatives for a greater approximation and appropriation of the nuances of everyday school life and relevant elements in teacher development, we chose to use narratives as an instrument of this research, assuming the peculiarities existing in social research (ALVES MAZZOTTI, 1998), but keeping in mind methodological procedures the rigor and systematization of scientific research.
Methodology
In this research, we opted for a predominantly qualitative approach, as we understand that this is the most appropriate way of investigating social phenomena and that it allows us to conduct a thorough analysis of the material obtained, and the incidence of quantitative data, which may be observed, will be considered in the analysis regarding its representative meaning (GIL, 2008).
The narratives in this article represent part of the empirical material of a case study that took place during the 2018 school year, in a public school located in a suburban neighborhood, in a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, as a result of a doctoral research.
To produce this article, we selected the empirical material constituted by narratives of ten teachers, carried out at the end of the school year, about their pedagogical practices in the context where they worked professionally.
These ten participants constitute a sample of teachers at the school, which at the time had 28 teachers. The selection took place through adherence to the invitation to volunteer to participate in the research, as well as the relevance of the teaching practice, verified by the researcher during the school year, when the intensive observations of this research took place. The narratives were produced between the months of December 2018 and January 2020.
In view of the teachers' time limitations and with the end of the school year, the narratives were directed through a script delivered in advance by the researcher to the participants, and these texts were produced orally by the teachers, then transcribed by the researcher.
Below, we present the script of questions used by the researcher:
Tell us about your main pedagogical practice developed this year, which involved partnerships;
What were the motivations that triggered this work?
Tell us about the development of this work in partnership.
What made you approach these work partners?
During this year, have you carried out training or had contact with other people outside the school, who directly or indirectly impacted your ideas, attitudes and/or points of view, during your professional performance?
Among the participants, one educator chose to produce the written narrative, while another, burdened with other personal demands, decided to take the oral option. Regarding this choice of record, Cunha (1997) emphasizes that written narratives are more disciplining of discourse, in comparison with oral language. This difference can be favorable to the research, as it benefits the spontaneity in the use of words and in the construction of the utterance, as it offers more data for analysis. Regarding narrative analysis, Galvão (2005, p.335) indicates that there is “exploration not only of what is said, but also of how it is said. The content and the form are looked at, and the figurative way in which language is used can be examined”.
Data analysis
We begin exposing the data with information on the training and length of professional experience of the teachers participating in this research. The names used are not real and were suggested by the participants themselves.
We present below the participants, all those with higher education:
Aurora, who has been teaching for 10 years, has been at school for 6 years and has a Master's Degree; Keylyan, 10 years of teaching, 5 years at school; Any, 7 years in teaching and 5 in school, studied Specialization; Manu, 8 years in teaching and 3 in school, studied Specialization; MC, 17 years old in teaching and 4 years old at school, with a Master's degree; Rosa, 18 years old in teaching and 5 years old at school, studied Specialization; Gabi, 3 years in teaching and 3 in school; Oswaldo, 4 years in teaching and 1 in school, has a Master's Degree and Aretusa, 15 years in teaching and 4 in school.
From the transcription of the recorded audio files, detailed readings were carried out with a focus on the research objectives. We analyzed the narratives, initially recognizing the possible constituent elements of educational networks, through the questions: “who”, “how” and “why”. Based on the incidences of the information found, we suggest three axes for organizing the data: partnerships, ties and types of support. The analysis of the content of the narratives was carried out based on the theoretical framework used. Next, we present excerpts from the selected narratives in view of their representativeness in relation to theoretical axes.
The interviews were conducted individually, and the audios were recorded outside the school, due to recess or school holidays. However, we chose to group the narratives by themes in this presentation and discussion of data, according to the approximation of elements related to educational networks at school.
Inclusion
In this first block, we present excerpts from the narratives, whose teaching practices involved the theme of school inclusion.
The teachers who presented narratives on this theme were: Aurora, Special Education teacher, Keilyan, 4th grade multipurpose teacher, and Any, 1st year multipurpose teacher.
Participants discuss their practices, introducing partners with whom they had contact throughout the school year. When mentioning them, they refer to the ties established, or not, during teaching practice.
The partnership was established at the beginning between me, a full professor, and the Special Ed teacher, and it was based on affinity, need and, mainly, in the pursuit of the student's success. (Keilyan)
So, about my experience of partnerships with other professionals, as I am a Special Education teacher, I have partnerships with several teachers because of the inclusion processes developed in the classrooms. (Aurora)
And among the partnerships we made during the year, a work that was very significant - and it's a work that we carry out almost every year with the 1st - years is an intervention work with the children. I partner with teacher XXX from the other 1st year. When MC was in the 1st year, I also had this partnership with her, but this year, the other teacher who was with us in the 1st year, did not propose to participate. (Any)
The inclusion itself highlights an issue of acceptance of what is different, which through the law becomes imposing, with legislation being a partner with whom unidirectional ties are established, in an immediate instance, as indicated by Kaufman (2012).
I think it's important to report an experience that was very intense with a 4th grade teacher regarding the inclusion of a student with autism. (Aurora)
I needed partnerships that did not interact directly with the student, but as he moved around the school environment a lot, I needed to count on the patience of the inspector, the cleaning staff and others. (Keilyan)
Partnerships at school, in the face of situations of inclusion, occur due to the daily need for socializing, despite the various disagreements that may arise, as evidenced in Fuser (2003).
The presence of management and supervision in the narratives represent the partnership and formal institutional ties (LIMA, 2015), responsible for the proper performance of the work, monitoring and dialogue with internal and external partners to the school.
Despite the management helping a lot to hold the bar, I think that maybe we should have outlined better conversation strategies with the family; of course, we had episodes of aggression, violence, that the management was fundamental, we ran after us, spoke to the family, helped us promptly, but I say, the day to day, everyday... It was a mother who needed to listen that her son had a different rhythm, not only pedagogical, but mainly social, emotional, and affective. (Aurora)
So, when it escaped our pedagogical competence, we had to call, yes, our supervision to guide us on what to do, because his violence could affect other children. But it was just a scare period and then it was an adaptation, and we were breathing and having this support from the supervisor, which was very important, we resumed the work of inclusion. (Aurora)
These are two different practices of inclusion in the same school, but with different scenarios. Teachers Aurora and Keilyan cite more partners in relation to teacher Any's teaching practice. When referring to the formation of bonds, we observe that teacher Any emphasizes building strong bonds with the child's mother and with the other children in the class, in addition to working with the other first-year teacher (AGIER, 2011). Teacher Aurora, on the other hand, establishes strong ties with her work partner, but also uses weak ties in search of various supports, aiming to solve her needs.
I think the partnership with other professionals was also very important. I had to resort many times to other older Special Education teachers, with more experience, because I was a student with a lot of difficulty to enter the school. (Aurora)
It was essential for me to have participated in congresses, these private studies, because they empowered me and my speech together with the teacher, in the sense of bringing effective, technical, theoretical contributions to the work. (Aurora)
By proposing to establish new ties or trigger more distant ties, teacher Aurora allows a dialogue on inclusion that goes beyond the school territory, expanding its support networks, as indicated by Levy (2003). Another factor that occurred was the change of professional caregiver, the one who accompanied the student at school, outside the classroom. This exchange interrupted the established bond, which had to be rebuilt during the school year.
We also establish a partnership with the caregiver responsible for the student outside the classroom. It was already a partnership with a little less success, as we have different professionals. The exchange was constant, and so, until we created bonds and security, the partnership did not happen effectively. (Keilyan)
I ended up not commenting on the work of the caregiver, who is a wonderful professional. He [the student] had two throughout the year, but they were both great, they worked a lot in partnership. (Aurora)
The occurrence mentioned about the change of the caregiver exemplifies the importance of coexistence and trust for the approximation between partners and the strengthening of ties. In this extreme situation that involves the inclusion of a child with autism, considering their communication and interaction limitations, socializing and monitoring to strengthen ties are even more relevant (AGIER, 2011). We observe, in the narratives presented, that support networks are not always constituted, as they depend on the establishment of partnership ties. When these happen and ties are expanded, the teaching work starts to count on support that allows its execution in a more collaborative way.
World Cup
Teachers Manu of Physical Education and Rosa, a 5th grade multipurpose teacher, narrate practices that took place in different classes, with 5th grade classes, in the morning, while teacher MC, a multipurpose teacher, worked in the afternoon with a class of 2nd year.
The three narratives we present below are grouped together due to their common theme: World Cup. They took place during the period of the year when the tournament games were taking place, and this world event became part of the classes in different ways.
Regarding the practice of Professor Manu, the World Cup subject represented a flow brought by students through an initiative during the Physical Education class. The dynamics of the class allowed students to express their interests and knowledge on the subject. The teacher, activating her cultural knowledge, established a dialogue with the class, expanding the repertoire associated with the subject, despite understanding an unexpected situation, because as she said, it was not an institutional project.
We draw on the court with chalk, the Amarelinha of Brazil, France, Portugal, Spain. Instead of putting the number on the hopscotch, I put the name of the player corresponding to that shirt number, and we made other countries, because they are countries where their idols [the children] play football. (Manu)
The situation of this class, however, when it was socialized with teacher Rosa, was re-signified, as it started to dialogue with a project developed by the three 5th grade groups, O Jornal Mural.
Although it was not an institutional World Cup project, thought by the whole school, due to the students' interest in this theme, I think this World Cup hopscotch activity was added, it was added to the World Cup Mural project, which was developed by the fifth years. (Manu)
Teacher Rosa used the motivation that the World Cup theme generated in the class and proposed other activities that extended to the three 5th grade groups of the school and also to other teachers at the school.
The 5th grade class got involved, we see the involvement even of the employees who are there at the school. In this bulletin board, when we do it, we try to put things that also streamline school things, a joke deira, a little game, always trying to involve everyone with things that are considered interesting, such as pranks, riddles, trivia. Thus, it becomes a job that not only involves the 5th grade class, it also involves the curiosity of other students, other classes, even because it makes the school more colorful, prettier. I thought it was really cool that the school had this job, again. (Rosa)
About these activities through projects between the classes, teacher Rosa contextualizes their performance at school:
When we did this work, a table was often placed outside the room, where we could get involved between the rooms, especially in the 5th year B and 5th year C. Of course, the physical position where our rooms were allowed this, because the two are neighbors. So, this is one of the main positive aspects for the students. (Rosa)
The daily life of the school is very dynamic, and teachers often find it difficult to meet and talk due to time limitations and numerous commitments that they accumulate (Levy, 2003). In the excerpts from these narratives, it is possible to observe that through communication between teacher Manu, briefly socializing her class with teacher Rosa, a connection was established between the pedagogical practices carried out by both, which were continued through other proposals, resulting from the students' motivation for the World Cup event.
In parallel to the practices in the morning period, the teachers in the afternoon were faced with the intense interest of the children in the Cup stickers album. However, few were able to acquire them, given the economic resources of their families. This need for consumption manifested by students and the theme of the World Cup, heavily publicized by the media, mobilized teachers from the 2nd grades to develop the Cup stickers Album project. To implement this proposal, there was a network mobilization, as indicated by Lima (2015): the teachers, in the planning and execution of activities; management, in providing resources; the employees, in the organization of the school space; the students, who became the players and were photographed. With this, the stickers were produced and it was possible to carry out the exchanges of stickers.
The main experience I had this year, and which involved the partnership of several co-workers was the Cup stickers Album project. (MC)
Faced with the satisfactory result of the project, professor MC, encouraged by professors from the same school and linked to the University, enrolled this teaching practice in the modality of communication in a seminar in the area. By presenting the work to other professors, specialists in the field, students, and researchers, it promoted the dissemination of its teaching knowledge and acquired new knowledge, concerns and ideas, in addition to establishing ties with the other participants of the event (PORTUGAL, 2007). Upon returning to school, teacher MC shared the experience with her teaching partners, who, in turn, gave new meaning to her work and demonstrated motivation for recognition.
I think that some moments this year, both in the PNAIC [referring to the National Literacy Plan in the Right Age] and in these interactions with other colleagues from other networks, I think that all of this enriched the work. This work of cup stickers was also taken to the XXX seminar, it was shared there with other researchers, with pedagogy students. It was a job, there were very important formative aspects in carrying out this work, but I think the main thing was the issue of exchanging with other teachers. (MC)
Although it was not a generative theme proposed by the school institution, the World Cup mobilized several teaching practices, as it was a theme widely disseminated by the media, reaching students and teachers through different communication channels, generating knowledge, as presented by Levy (2003).
Art and Movement
Participants Gabi, a Physical Education teacher, and Oswaldo, an Arts teacher exposes the partnership they made throughout the school year, involving interdisciplinary proposals using circus practices, dance, music and movement. They came closer by identity affinity, as both are specialist professors. According to Professor Oswaldo, they experience similar problems and conflicts. In addition, this teacher had started that school year at that school and teacher Gabi, already a veteran of the institution, was receptive and established bonds of trust with her colleague.
I think what most united us in this partnership, first, was the fact that the two of them work with the movement, and I had arrived that year at school. So, I wanted to find someone I could talk to; we want this, right? When we are in new territory, look for who we can count on, if and going to class is normal, as with children. And then, Gabi was super open. And I always end up getting closer to people from Art and Physical Education, because that's where we can meet, because they are specialists. We have some conflicts that only happen to us, some problems that only happen to us, so there is already an identification. (Oswaldo)
Although both were specialists, they were from different areas, which complemented the proposals for teaching activities, which became interdisciplinary.
Physical Education personnel also suffer, in quotes, from having to work on dance within the school. Often, it even generates a clash between Physical Education and dance personnel. Instead of taking on this clash, I try to form a partnership, not that I won't make it, but it's much better to work with someone else, with another professional. (Oswaldo)
In addition to knowledge from specific areas, Professor Oswaldo had worked professionally in other activities, before entering the teaching career. Therefore, he had different and innovative knowledge about dance, circus, and artistic performance in different spaces, but he felt insecure about the pedagogical, didactic, and institutional aspects of the school.
Well, I have a degree in dance, a bachelor's degree in dance and a degree, and before working in Basic Education, I've always worked with dance, ballet and worked for a long time with acrobatic fabric. And when I went to Basic Education, one of my biggest confrontations was how to work with dance, work with the circus, work with everything I had been working on before, within the discipline of Arts. This is still a confrontation. (Oswaldo)
We showed videos, introduced the children to some composers, such as Heitor Villa Lobos, (...) circle songs, which he made especially for the children... (...) They were able to present these, through dance, songs. And, in the end, we used Caetano Veloso's music, creating a choreography with all the series. We created this choreography and were able to perform. (Gabi)
More than the bond established with the partner Gabi, Professor Oswaldo talks about his search for partners who could meet his professional demands, at school and in other spaces, including the family, requesting support from the partner he lives with (FIALHO, 2014).
I have my partner, he is a musician and he helps me a lot in music and body percussion classes. “When we were working with dance, we also wanted to introduce popular cultures, and then we brought singing, we brought body percussion. He helped me a lot in this matter, not only in terms of teaching, but also in terms of how to approach such activities. I think it added up a lot. Even though he is not present here, during my classes he is part of the school [because he participates at a distance, collaborating with teaching practices].
In these excerpts from the narratives presented, it is possible to observe that partnerships and the constitution of strong ties (AGIER, 2011), which convey a feeling of trust and security, in the reality of the teacher, do not happen exclusively within the school. They exist among family members and groups of friends who, when activated, can set up a support network for teaching practices.
Professor Oswaldo also narrates his searches through internet research on specific topics in his area of teaching. And teacher Gabi, over the course of the year, established partnerships outside the school.
And I have seen some references, things that I see on the internet, that I really like and that I would like to work with the children, in relation to installation [According to Houaiss (2001), in the fine arts, it consists of construction or stacking of materials, permanent or temporary, in which the spectator can participate], performance, which I think we can work with, too. (Oswaldo)
I participated in the training course that is held at the Municipal Training Center with the Physical Education class. This year, we worked on the school games that took place at the end of the year, and I also participated in the XXX study group that takes place at XXX University. (Gabi)
Whether through research, interacting over the internet, or in person in courses and study groups, when the teacher allows himself to be with the unknown other, to take ownership of other realities and expand his own horizon, an educational network with other characteristics can be constituted, also, through initiatives such as that of Professor Oswaldo, who proposed to research specific ideas and themes in his area. This contact with other interlocutors, which may be other professionals, institutions or theorists, when activated, can expand the teacher's support network, affecting their teaching practice, as found in Lima (2015).
Professor Oswaldo, in his professional performance, also seeks to maintain a coherent posture with the memories he has about his history of and life and its formation.
I come from the public school, too, and I have a similar story with the children I teach. So, I think, I don't think, right, Art, it took me to another world, to another life. What I want to give them is what I had. (Oswaldo)
In this excerpt of the narrative, we can establish a parallel with the author Aguiar (2004), who theorizes about vertical and horizontal communicative processes. When professor Oswaldo dialogues with the memories of his past in this vertical communication, he chooses his memories as partners and interlocutors, with which he establishes affective ties and, by developing a reflective process, politically positions himself as a professor.
The project
The excerpts from the narrative of teacher Aretusa do not have a direct relationship with the narratives presented above, as the pedagogical experience she narrated was developed in partnership with school teachers who are not included among the participants in this research.
Participant Aretusa, an Art teacher, manifests in her narrative that among the partnerships initially proposed for the development of the project, some were more successful than others, due to some factors, such as time and affinity.
In reality, during this project, only the partnership with one of the teachers worked well, it flowed as planned. In the others, the problems with the schedule and the lack of time to sit together and review some project issues hindered the progress[...]. This partnership was good, yes, because it made my job easier. In addition, they are people with whom I've done other projects, other years, and this made communication and the work done a lot easier. (Aretusa)
I think that, in order to develop a future work in partnership, it would be complicated if the person had difficulty hearing different opinions, if they had difficulty dedicating themselves to the project, if they were not collaborative (Aretusa).
In Professor Aretusa's narrative, it is possible to identify barriers that can hinder the establishment of partnerships, such as lack of time, difficulty in communication, work overload, as well as personality characteristics. In addition, being an experienced teacher, she demonstrates more criticality and selectivity when proposing future work in partnership.
Professor Aretusa claims to have participated in training courses during the school year and that these reflected in her teaching practices.
I participated in some trainings during the year. Among them, I did a postgraduate degree in clinical psychopedagogy, which had an impact on my performance at the school. (...) In this training, I learned techniques that helped me in several critical moments, for solving problems at school with students. (Aretusa)
Despite working for 16 years as a teacher and having acquired a repertoire in teaching practice, in her narrative, Professor Aretusa expresses the permanent need to seek new partnerships that promote continued development in order, in the best way, to respond to the challenges of this profession.
Discussion
Initially, we clarify that these narratives presented do not reflect the teaching practices of all the teachers in this school, nor the characteristics of all the practices developed by the teachers participating in this research, throughout the entire school year. Each narrative talks about a teaching practice carried out by one of the teachers who agreed to participate in this study.
From the analysis of the narratives and considering the profile of the participants, we observe that the partnerships suggest searches to fill professional needs (ABREU, 2019), as we can see in the partnership of professors Aurora and Keilyan, who together sought to meet the demands arising from inclusion of a student with autism. Professor Aurora, a specialist in Special Education with a postgraduate degree in the area, represented for Professor Keilyan, who did not have the same prerogative, a reference to support the great challenge faced. On the other hand, teacher Aurora found in her partner the commitment, trust and affinity to carry out her work. Both supported each other emotionally in the face of difficulties and insecurities, as they had built bonds of trust and closeness between them.
Complementarity is also emphasized in the narrative of Oswaldo, a new teacher at the school, who found in Gabi a reliable partner, with whom he can dialogue and share pedagogical and institutional challenges. Gabi, on the other hand, found in this partnership new pedagogical and interdisciplinary possibilities, expanding her didactic and cultural repertoire, as well as a grateful friendship (VIGOTSKY, 2007).
The proximity and the constitution of strong ties (KAUFMAN, 2012) can also be observed in the other narratives: teachers Any and Joana, who supported their work with students in a situation of inclusion in the 1st years, teacher MC together with other teachers from two the first year, in the development of the Álbum de figurinhas project, and professor Rosa and the other fifth grade teachers, in the realization of the Jornal Mural project.
Partnerships between specialist professors, due to the lack of coexistence because they work at different times than multipurpose professors and because of different routines, are less common. Furthermore, as they did not recognize themselves in the routine and profile of other teachers, they indicated that they sought identity partners outside the school, in courses or training groups. The constitution of strong ties is not necessarily conditioned to territoriality (LÉVY, 2003), as strong ties can be established with physically distant partners, especially in these times when access to communication technologies has become more routine (FUSER, 2003).
Despite this, strong ties, those responsible for the feeling of trust and security, tend to develop at school, between professionals who live together intensely and recognize themselves as equals, in terms of identity (AGIER, 2011). These ties, when established, due to the feeling of security and convenience, can reduce the willingness to innovate.
In everyday school life, situations that exceed the ability of a professional, or even a group, to solve it have been frequent, which creates a destabilization of the balance and the need to search for innovation. In the narratives, we observe the search for solutions in the absence of answers to questions related to inclusion, for example. Aurora resorted to her weak ties, contacting professionals and researchers she had knowledge of, in search of subsidies. Oswaldo resorted to internet research, expanding his repertoire of activities. Gabi participated in training courses with Physical Education teachers, seeking to get closer to those who make up the same category, in search of identity strengthening. These are some examples found in the narratives that demonstrate a teacher's search flow for partners who represent potential support, capable of remedying existing demands (MONTAÑO, MARTINEZ, TORRES, 2017).
We can also observe, in the analyzed narratives, the constitution of ties and expansion of nodes in educational networks, through the experiences of teachers in the social spaces they attend (FIALHO, 2014). This condition can be observed in the narrative of professor MC, who proposed to present the work developed with her partners in an academic event and, on that occasion, she can socialize her practices with different people gathered from common interests, who potentially may come to to be important partners in their educational network (PORTUGAL, 2007).
Partners, in a broad sense, can also be interlocutors located in times and spaces different from ours, with whom we also dialogue internally (AGUIAR, 2004). In Professor Oswaldo's narrative, it is possible to observe the relevance of this partnership that is physically absent, but present in the memory of the life story of this teacher, who claims to have studied in a public school and brings with him the commitment to repay his students for the opportunities he had through Education.
Considerations
Due to the above, the words and expressions situated in a school context observed by the researcher during the school year, we affirm that the constitution of woven networks in a school is not limited to its territory. Families of teachers and students, teachers from other educational institutions, education support professionals, researchers, authors of scientific and cultural productions, as well as artists, are also artisans of these networks.
We identified less personalized representations, such as the University, the Training Center, Study Groups, cultural spaces and the media. There are also those interlocutors, located in the affective, educational and professional memory of the teacher himself.
We observe in the narratives that one of the indications for establishing partnerships stems from the limitations of a profession. This human incompleteness mobilizes the search for what the other has different, capable of completing it in different aspects: affective/emotional, technical, academic, cultural, institutional, family, legal, pedagogical/didactic, identity, political, reflective/dialogical, practical/executive, motivational and innovative/creative.
Thus, the bonds established with partners, not necessarily closer in terms of geographic location, are characterized as affective bonds of trust and stability and are configured in strong bonds (AGIER, 2011).
With other partners, with little contact and occasional exchanges, weak ties have come into being, that is, those that can be activated from the demands of diversified flows (KAUFMAN, 2012).
There is also the absence of ties, which may result from the failure in the communication process, making it impossible for the circulation of flows in tre some possible partners. Likewise, broken ties are identified, due to daily barriers, such as lack of time or mismatches in interests or needs. And still others, arising spontaneously from affinities between partners, or induced, to meet a latent demand of everyday life.
Considering the analysis carried out, we infer that participating in collective activities that promote socialization with unknown or distant interlocutors, whether in different courses or in cultural spaces, associations, research, can contribute to the expansion of educational networks and diversify ties and support available to the teacher, allowing him to develop practices that go beyond the comfort zone and remain as alive and dynamic as the reality of schools.
