Training paths proposed by region.

In this section, we present the analysis of the curricular matrices and syllabi available on the websites of the institutions. We understand that the curriculum is “[...] a discursive practice. This means that it is a practice of power, but also a practice of meaning, of attribution of meanings” (^{LOPES and MACEDO, 2011}, p. 41). Therefore, we read the history of creation of the courses described in the pedagogical projects and on the institutional websites because we wanted to understand the functioning and the institutional context in which the subjects that we analyzed were managed. Thus, for each region, we prepared a brief history of creation of the courses we analyzed and the grouping of all subjects offered in the categories that we previously defined. All the curricular matrices that we analyzed were from 2014.

South region

According to our research, this region had courses that enabled teachers to teach science only in middle school and courses with qualifications in the areas of science, chemistry, biology, and physics. Of the institutions registered in the e-MEC system, we analyzed the curricular matrices of four: the State University of Maringá (UEM), the Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS)³, the State University of Paraná (UNESPAR), and the Federal University of Pampa (UNIPAMPA). The courses offered by these institutions were offered predominantly at night on campuses in cities far from the state capitals, in border regions. Except for the UEM course that was established in 1991, the others were implemented from the 2000s onwards. UNESPAR's licentiate degree has been offered since 2000, and the licentiate degree of UFFS has been offered since the creation of the university in 2009, as is also the case at UNIPAMPA, which was founded in 2008.

In the courses analyzed in the South region (table 1), the high workload of subjects addressing biological knowledge compared to the workload devoted to the areas of physics and chemistry is noteworthy. In almost all the cases, the latter had the same workload, except for at UNIPAMPA.

All courses of study offer subjects in the category of mathematics. At some institutions, such as UEM and UNESPAR, the workload in this category is equal to or greater than those of chemistry and physics. At most institutions, the category of mathematics has a considerably higher workload than that of geosciences, which covers knowledge that makes up the science curriculum in middle school. If we compare the emphasis on mathematical knowledge with the offerings in the Final Course Work category, we see that the former is more valued than the latter, because FCW is not present in all the courses we analyzed.

Regarding the category of geosciences, as we moved through the analysis of institutions, the workload decreased. It required a lower workload than the categories of physics, chemistry, and biology. In most of the courses we analyzed, only one subject discusses geosciences with the students. This decrease is also observed in the workload devoted to the meta-scientific category subjects.

Regarding the knowledge required for teaching, the pedagogical content knowledge category required a lower workload than the pedagogical category.

Midwest region

In this region, most of the courses only confer a qualification for nature sciences. We obtained the curriculum matrices of two institutions, the Federal Institute of Technological Education of Mato Grosso (IFET-MT) and the University of Brasília (UnB), from their websites (Table 2).

This course of study that has been offered by IFET-MT since 2010, and it takes place at night in the city of Jaciara, in the hinterlands of the state, at an advanced center of the São Vicente Campus. The center was created to meet a demand for science teachers in the region.

The University of Brasilia, in contrast, was created over 50 years ago and is considered a traditional Brazilian higher education institution. Around 2005, it developed an expansion plan involving the creation of new campuses and later joined the REUNI. An LDNC has been offered since 2006 at the Planaltina-DF campus, and both day and night classes are currently offered there.

According to the data on Table 2, the courses we analyzed have very distinct curricular matrices. In IFET-MT, the workload of the biology category is higher than those of the others. The mathematics category, with 280 hours of course work, is more highly valued than the geosciences category (40 hours), as was also the case in the South region.

The UnB course has a more even workload distribution between the categories that compose the disciplinary axis, such as biology (300 hours), physics (240 hours), chemistry (270 hours), and geology (270 hours). The data are interesting because they show that, in this curriculum matrix, none of the categories is valued more highly than the rest. This reaffirms the importance of the future teacher of natural sciences having access to knowledge from all areas and that this contact is not restricted to an “example” of knowledge from one particular area in the science curriculum. On the contrary, it can be expected that such contact with a wide range academic fields will enable the student to reflect on the disciplinary knowledge present in the teaching of science and develop a more integrated view of these areas.

Another relevant point is the workload of elective subjects (660 hours) which, according to the pedagogical impetus of the course, aims to give students the opportunity to complement their studies with courses in the areas that interest them most, either to prepare them for further study, or because they are experiencing academic difficulties and want/need to improve themselves. The high workload of elective subjects in the UnB licentiate degree program may be the reason that the pedagogical content, meta-scientific, and pedagogical categories require a lower workload at UnB than at IFET-MT.

Southeast region

In the Southeast region, the only states with institutions offering an LDNC are São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Unlike the other regions, the institutions in the Southeast only offer on-site courses. Of the on-site courses, three do not offer specific qualifications in chemistry, physics, or biology. Of these three courses of study, two were used for this study (table 3), as they made the matrices available on their institutional websites: one at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), and the other at the University of São Paulo (USP).

We noticed a high workload in the geosciences category at USP and in the biology category at UNIRIO. However, we must consider the context in which these licentiate degrees are offered, as this may be reflected in the development of the curriculum matrices and would explain the concentration of subjects in some areas.

Although the LDNC at UNIRIO was implemented in 1984, it was transformed in the 1990s into a pedagogical complement to the bachelor’s degree in biology. However, according to the pedagogical project, and in compliance with the new National Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduates, the course was restructured and was offered again in 2007.

USP’s LDNC course was implemented in 2005, with the creation of a university campus in eastern São Paulo. When comparing the workload values of the chemistry (180 hours), physics (195 hours), biology (480 hours) and geosciences (450 hours) categories, greater emphasis was placed on the last two to the detriment of the first two. This may be because this institution hosted the first natural history course in Brazil. In these courses, aspects related to geosciences were studied, and this may have been reflected in the development of the proposed curriculum matrix for the course.

Northeastern region

In 2014, the Northeast region had 10 LDNCs, most of which were implemented in the 2000s. Of these, five did not confer qualifications in other areas, and we obtained data from four of these institutions. The institutions whose curricular matrices we analyzed were the Federal University of the Vale do Rio Francisco (UNIVASF), Federal University of the Recôncavo Baiano (UFRB), Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), and Federal University of Piauí (UFPI). A distinctive feature of this region is the availability of distance learning courses (UFPB) and in the scope of PARFOR in the modality of a first degree for teachers who already work at educational institutions without academic training in the area in which they teach, as is the case in the UFRB’s course of study.

Among the degrees offered in the Northeast region (Table 4), the UNIVASF course has the highest workload in the geosciences category (180 hours) and in the meta-science category (300 hours). The latter corresponds to the highest workload in this category among all the matrices analyzed in the research. We must also highlight the fact that the workload of the pedagogical content knowledge category (360 hours) at this institution is three times higher than that of the pedagogical knowledge category (120 hours).

Among all the matrices analyzed, the course of study with the highest workload in the area of pedagogical knowledge is the one offered at UFPB (675 hours). If we compare the institutions of the Northeast region, the UFPB’s LDNC has a smaller discrepancy between the biology, physics, chemistry, and geosciences categories than the other courses of study in this region that we analyzed. However, we observed, as in the other courses in other regions that we analyzed, there is a heavy workload in the biology category (629 hours) at UFRB’s LDNC, especially when we compare this workload with those in the areas of physics, chemistry, and geosciences.

The UFPI’s course is the only one in the Northeast region that does not include any subjects in the geosciences category. On the other hand, it requires a workload in the mathematics category (300 hours) equal to that of the chemistry category (300 hours), which leads us to reflect on the degree of importance given to mathematical knowledge.

When we analyzed the courses in the Northeast region (Table 4), we observed that most of them valued the subjects in the pedagogical content knowledge category highly. In general, the subjects that address knowledge of biology are more valued than those addressing chemistry and physics. The geosciences category does not have as much importance as the others. In fact, at the institutions where courses in geosciences are offered, this area requires a lower workload; UFPI, however, does not offer any subjects in this category.

North Region

In the North region, half of the LDNCs did not provide qualifications for other areas. We obtained data from two institutions (Table 5): the Amapa State University (UEAP) and the Federal University of Pará (UFPA).

The results of the analysis of the courses in the North region do not differ from those of the other regions. We observed a higher workload in the biology category than in the physics, chemistry, and geosciences categories. We observed that the courses in this region that we analyzed have a heavier workload in the pedagogical content knowledge area than those we found when analyzing other regions. We observed that the geosciences category required a low workload and the mathematics category was more highly valued in terms of hours/classes.

In general, we have not found a homogeneous distribution of the workload among the several areas we have chosen as categories. Again, we reiterate that this may be due to the absence of established national curriculum guidelines for LDNCs. However, we can take a new look at the curriculum matrices and analyze them by grouping these categories in relation to the (i) approach of the disciplinary content and (ii) of the pedagogical content, pedagogical content knowledge, and training during supervised internships to promote a discussion on the articulation between these two axes of teacher training.

An overview of the curricular structuring of the LDNCs we analyzed

With regard to the curricular organization of teacher training courses, it can already observed from the literature (^{DINIZ-PEREIRA, 1999}; ^{GATTI and NUNES, 2009}; ^{CARVALHO and GIL-PÉREZ, 2011}) that the first licentiate degrees were based on the “3+1” formula, in which the disciplinary content, under the auspices of the basic institutes, was taught during the first three years of the course of study and the pedagogical content was addressed in the last year as a complement to the bachelor’s degree. In this proposal, there was no articulation between the pedagogical training and the content that was taught, converging in a training model based on technical rationality. Moreover, there was no concern shown for addressing the pedagogical knowledge of the content that was taught.

An attempt was made to reverse this situation with the establishment of the National Curriculum Guidelines for the training of teachers of basic education, through CNE/CP Resolution No. 1 of 2002, which led to a reform of the curriculum matrices of various licentiate degrees. This occurred because, among other goals, a more dialogical training between the formative axes was desired, not only a change in the distribution of the workload, although this was also intended.

In order to see if the Licentiate degrees in Nature Sciences that we analyzed deviated from this “3+1” formula, we present in Table 6 the percentage of the total workload devoted to the subjects in which specific content is taught and the percentage of the subjects aimed at teaching preparation (pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and internship).

Observing the data in Table 6, we can see that none of the curricular matrices that we analyzed fit the “3+1” formula. In general, we can say that there is a certain balance in the distribution of course hours between the disciplinary formation and preparation for teaching axes.

In most of the courses, between 30% and 40% of the total workload is devoted to subjects in the chemistry, physics, biology, and geosciences categories, which are content subjects, with an emphasis on biology. In general, the chemistry and physics subjects have a workload close to, but lower than that of, biology; the subjects in the geosciences category have an even lower workload, as previously discussed.

Regarding teaching preparation, in seven of the fourteen courses analyzed, the workload of subjects in the pedagogical knowledge category accounts for up to 10% of the total workload of the courses. In the other seven, they account for between 11% and 22% of the total workload. However, when we analyzed the workload of subjects in the pedagogical content knowledge category, we observed that in most courses of study (10), they account for less than 10% of the total workload.

It is important to emphasize that we expected a considerable presence of subjects addressing pedagogical content knowledge, since they favor the integration of the knowledge of disciplinary content and pedagogical knowledge. According to indications from the field of science teacher education (^{CARVALHO and GIL-PÉREZ, 2011}), the approaches used in these subjects are aligned with the integration of knowledge incorporated by graduates throughout training, through reflections on the transposition or didactic recontextualization of how to learn to learn, and on how to teach science.

Finally, another aspect that is not described in Table 6, but that caught our attention, is the presence of meta-scientific subjects in ten of the fourteen courses analyzed. According to ^{Schnetzler (2012}, p. 97), the literature indicates that besides knowing the content to be taught, teachers must have knowledge of the history and philosophy of sciences; the methodological guidelines that shape the construction of scientific knowledge; the interactions between science, technology, society, and the environment; and the limitations of, and perspectives on, scientific development. All this knowledge can serve as the basis of a teaching process in which the content is not approached as ready, true, static, unquestionable, and neutral or socially, historically, and culturally decontextualized.