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Educação e Pesquisa

versão impressa ISSN 1517-9702versão On-line ISSN 1678-4634

Educ. Pesqui. vol.48  São Paulo  2022  Epub 20-Jan-2022

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-4634202248236020 

ARTICLES

The essence and appearance in the curricular context of the degree in the geography course at the State University of Londrina*

Adriana Regina de Jesus Santos1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9346-5311

José Alexandre Gonçalves1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3254-0576

1- Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil. Contatos: adrianatecnologia@yahoo.com.br; alexandregeopg@gmail.com


Abstract

The article analyzes the precepts of the Resolution number 02/2015 and the new curriculum aimed at the degree in geography course at the State University of Londrina (UEL) from the requirements of such regulation. Based on the dialectical method, the study addressed official documents, especially the specific formative axis of the teacher professionalization, and appreciated the analytical category defined here as appearance, having, as comparative support, other works in similar contexts and realities. During the analysis, due to the method, some questions are raised about the apparent plan of the object, recognizing that the appearance needs to be well elucidated, because, in many moments, they reveal to the observer the essence of the concrete. That said, when analyzing the syllabuses of the disciplines, it was possible to highlight some weaknesses in the training process of the geography teacher. Thus, it is considered that a licentiate degree is a course that must necessarily have an identity and be based on the theoretical foundations of Education. In this way, it is necessary to rethink the list of disciplines and their themes to encompass the understanding of the complexity of the professional field, thus avoiding thinking about the formation of the future geography teacher in a pragmatic and utilitarian perspective, aspects that are quite publicized in the academic literature on the field.

Key words: Education; Curriculum; Degree; Geography

Resumo

O artigo analisa os preceitos da Resolução nº 02/2015 e o novo currículo objetivado no curso de licenciatura em geografia na Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) a partir das exigências de tal normativa. Nas bases do método dialético, o estudo abordou documentos oficiais, especialmente o eixo formativo específico da profissionalização do professor, e apreciou a categoria analítica aqui definida como aparência, tendo, como suporte comparativo, outros trabalhos em contextos e realidades semelhantes. Ao longo da análise, por força do método, apresentam-se alguns questionamentos ao plano aparente do objeto, reconhecendo que a aparência precisa estar bem elucidada, pois, em muitos momentos, ela revela ao observador a essência do concreto. Isso posto, ao analisar as ementas das disciplinas, foi possível evidenciar algumas fragilidades no processo formativo do professor de geografia. Assim, pondera-se que a licenciatura é um curso que necessariamente deve ter identidade e se fundamentar nas bases teóricas da educação. Desse modo, é preciso repensar o elenco de disciplinas e seus temas para abranger o entendimento da complexidade do campo profissional, evitando dessa maneira, pensar a formação do futuro professor de geografia em uma perspectiva pragmática e utilitarista, aspectos bastante veiculados na literatura acadêmica sobre o campo.

Palavras-Chave: Educação; Currículo; Licenciatura; Geografia

Introduction

This study on teacher education is an analysis of the precepts of Resolution number 02/2015 and the curricular reformulation of the subjects of the vocational axis conferred in the degree in geography course at the State University of Londrina (UEL).

To choose and justify this specific theme, given the experience of our initial training at another academic institution, we started from the assumption that propositions such as the philosophical, sociological, political, and historical foundations of education are more and more “distant” from the degree in geography courses developed in Brazil.

The quotation marks are due to the understanding that the topics mentioned above are not entirely absent in some of the excellent geography teacher education courses that exist across the country, but that, by virtue of the contemporary hegemonic conception of teacher education, they can be losing space in the curriculum of degree course.

Trying to avoid a misunderstanding, we carried out a survey of articles published in journals in geography and its teaching, in the context of the period of 2010 and 2016, in the SciELO database, using the terms “degree course” and “geography”. Of the sixteen works listed, in fifteen of them the assumptions were not explicit about the theoretical-philosophical foundations of education and its implications for teacher education and teacher knowledge.

It was found that the articles discussed propositions on a level almost exclusively from the perspective of practical experience, with the purpose of pointing out possibilities for their technical problems.

Thus, when studying the chosen object on the basis of the dialectical method, we work with certain concepts and analytical categories of this methodological approach. In short, dialectics2 refers to the way of thinking the contradictions of reality, of understanding it in its permanent movement of change. That said, the study presented here is part of a broad research that addressed two analytical categories: “appearance” and “essence” of the research object. However, specifically in this article, considering the characteristics of this dissemination space, we summarize what we understand in our analysis by aspects that deal with the “appearance” of the object. Given the foundations that support us, we find in Vesentini (1987) the following argument regarding the categories addressed:

What are appearance and essence in dialectical thinking? Appearance is the way of appearing of the being, its phenomenal expression […]. And essence means that which determines, which gives meaning to existence, which remains even with phenomenal modifications. […]. Essence, therefore, consists of the highest degree of abstraction - it is “the truth of being”. (VESENTINI, 1987, p. 21).

In this way, we understand that the analysis of documents, whether they are a project, a proposal or a plan that will provide the guidelines for a work, is the time to stick to the appearance aspects (the thesis or the proposition) of the object. Thus, we focused on the precepts of Resolution Number 02/2015, which led to curricular reformulations of the degree courses and, with the consent of those responsible, we had access to the new Pedagogical Course Proposal to carry out the analysis. Making a cut, we limited ourselves to the professionalizing axis of the proposal, that is, to the pedagogical subjects of the course. Therefore, we reinforce that the procedure for analyzing the documents of a course is the time to capture aspects of its “physiognomy”, of its “image”. Therefore, apparently, the thesis or proposition of the phenomenon studied here, called “geography degree of UEL” is appreciated.

Likewise, any individual interested in knowing the appearance of a course, can do it through an appreciation of what is described in its pedagogical proposal. On the other hand, “the truth of the being” reveals itself in concreteness, when the reality of subjects is experienced in their effective training work; the real objectification in the relationship between trainers and academics is, in our understanding, the “essence”. However, we reiterate that due to the limitation and characteristic of this means of dissemination, this category will not be considered in this article.

This composition is divided into two sections, the first exclusively analyzes certain articles of Resolution Number 02/2015 and some dilemmas that the new subjects of the professionalizing axis of the curriculum of the degree in geography of UEL can present according to their syllabi and the proposal required by the normative. The second section discusses an old concern of geographers related to their education with regard to their possible qualifications, which, in the context of teacher education, manifests itself in idealistic arguments in face of an evident dichotomy in the courses.

Resolution Number 02/2015 and contents of the professionalizing axis of the new curriculum for the degree in geography at the State University of Londrina

With responsibility and respect for the institution and the subjects involved in this research, we made the diagnosis of the dialectical category defined by “appearance”, dealing with teleologies, that is, what is clearly defined as an intentional plan, as the intended objective in the proposal of formation of the geography teacher, expressed in the guiding document of the research object.

Within the scope of general regulations, dealing with the issue of curriculum organization in relation to the workload and other specific points, aiming at degree courses with identity, there is CNE Resolution Number 02/2015, which established the national curriculum guidelines for initial and continued training at higher level of teaching professionals for basic education (DCNs). This, according to Dourado (2015), emerged democratically as a construction that sought to expand the space for the pedagogical training of teachers in general. The little space for theoretical aspects of education in degree courses is a weakness identified in several works, such as those by Sudbrack (2009), Krahe (2009), Gatti (2010) and Gonçalves and Carvalho (2017), among others, making them a demand legitimized by entities that defend research in education and teacher training.

Therefore, Resolution Number 02/2015 establishes in its article 13, paragraph 1, items I to IV, that the political-pedagogical projects (PPPs) of the degree courses be restructured in 3,200 hours. Understood by many as an achievement in the field of teacher education, at first the regulation had stipulated a period of two years for higher education institutions and their specific departments to carry out adjustments to their new curriculum. But that time, under the pressure from public and private institutions, was extended.

The resolution required major innovations in degree courses and its most striking aspect is prescribed in the aforementioned article 13. In addition to the increase in the workload, this article imposes in its 2nd paragraph the following precept:

The training courses must guarantee in the curricula specific content of the respective area of knowledge or interdisciplinary content, its fundamentals and methodologies, as well as contents related to the fundamentals of education, training in the area of public policy and education management, its fundamentals and methodologies, human rights , ethnic-racial, gender, sexual, religious, generational diversities, Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), special education and educational rights of adolescents and young people in compliance with socio-educational measures. (BRASIL, 2015, p. 12).

As is quite evident, several propositions must be objectified in the curricular reformulations of initial teacher education courses based on this normative. It is noted that Resolution Number 02/2015 ratified a diversity of themes and some, by law, are already subjects in basic education, such as racial diversity. Thus, a wide range of subjects needs to be discussed and considered in degree courses so that, in a special way, professionalization is raised and this is reflected in improvements in the care of children and young people, in the teaching offered and also in the management of the school environment. Capabilities that must be developed in graduation to promote, in addition to technical instrumentalization, other aspects of professional performance that future teachers will face in their work in teaching in basic education.

In this sense, we started to analyze the reformulation in the degree course in geography at the State University of Londrina (UEL). Through the causality imposed by Resolution Number 02/2015, the department’s professors carried out the plan to change and re-elaborate the new pedagogical curriculum proposal between the years 2015 to 2017. In this reformulation process, new subjects were proposed and became part of the new curriculum. The subjects of the professionalizing axis of the degree curriculum (according to Process UEL/CEPE/CA, Number 9677.2017.37), which entered into force in 2019, are described below:

Due to the expansion of the workload imposed by the guideline, the new proposal for teacher education regarding the geography of the course offered by UEL now has nine subjects with a strict focus on teaching knowledge (teaching-learning) and issues related to education, and another five academic activities of a mandatory nature related to the practice of teaching and research.

It is necessary to emphasize that teacher education is an interdisciplinary and complex field of knowledge, and its development involves studies that encompass several themes (GATTI, 2010). Given this fact, by analyzing Resolution Number 02/2015 and its relationship with the contents of the professionalizing axis of the new curriculum proposed, we will critically appreciate three points of this curriculum reformulation.

The first prominent point, article 13, already mentioned above, establishes that training courses must guarantee in the curricula, among various topics, content related to the “fundamentals of education”. On this point ratified by the resolution, we argue that education, being part of the social and human sciences, appreciates philosophy. Fundamentals of education, therefore, refer to the philosophical and historical foundations of education. Rios (2003), in the early 1980s, building critical diagnoses about the field with other authors, argued that:

[…] even today, philosophy retains this sense of seeking out the entire knowledge. […]. Because it points to the breadth, depth and clarity that characterize that investigation. Philosophical reflection wants to see its object clear, deep and wide. (RIOS, 2003.p. 17).

So, this is a basic premise in all higher-level training. So that courses in this sphere are not restricted only to offering teaching in the instrumental, technical domain and in the logic of applicability to the field of work, philosophy has contributed to clarifying and expanding the academics’ worldview and intellectual capacity. In the field of education, Saviani (2003) explains that the importance of theoretical-philosophical knowledge lies in the fact that it enables the development of the subject’s critical capacity and, subsequently, the existence of an emancipated, questioning teacher who, in his pedagogical praxis, will be better prepared to ask him/herself: what are you doing? What do you want to do? Who are you putting yourself at service for?

In this sense, Resolution Number 02/2015, when it presents that one of the principles in relation to the training of teaching professionals needs to have as a premise “a solid theoretical basis” that reflects the specificity of teacher training, corroborates the reflection and proposition about the constitution of the emancipation of the future educator.

Therefore, teacher education must be understood in its fullness through a historical perspective that allows us to understand how the curricular pedagogical proposals of degree courses are being thought and materialized, as well as their implications for the training of future teachers in terms of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal knowledge. These knowledges need a solid theoretical basis in the field of teacher education.

In this way, the desired specificity at this point of the normative, according to our understanding, refers to the specificities of the area of teacher education, therefore, it must be objectified in the proposals for degree courses, which implies a great epistemological, didactic, pedagogical and political challenge. This is a discussion that has been going on for decades in the country.

Contributing to this reflection, Resolution Number 02/2015, in its article 12, item I, letter “a”, states that initial training courses should articulate:

[…] principles, concepts, contents and criteria from different areas of knowledge, including pedagogical, specific and interdisciplinary knowledge, the foundations of education, for the development of people, organizations and society. (BRASIL, 2015, p. 10).

About the previous excerpt, we emphasize that “Fundamentals of Education” is a premise described more than once in the guidelines. However, when we analyze the reformulation of the pedagogical proposal and observe Table 1, referring to the subjects of the professionalizing axis of the degree in geography course at UEL, we see that in the second semester of the course, academics have the subject “Fundamentals of school geography”, with a 60-hour workload. In this aspect, a contradiction is identified. A mistake is perceived when confusing the “Fundamentals of school geography” as synonymous with “Fundamentals of Education”. At this point, there is a shift or an attempt to seek the applicability of theory and philosophical knowledge to the field of teaching geography.

Table 1 – Disciplines of the professionalizing axis: curriculum 2019 

SEMESTER DISCIPLINES WORKLOAD
Fundamentals of School Geography 60 hours
Methodology of teaching and learning in geography I 75 hours
Educational policies 60 hours
*Internship of teacher experience in geography I 100 hours
Psychology of education 60 hours
* Internship of teacher experience in geography II 100 hours
Methodology of teaching and learning in geography II 75 hours
Didactics of geography and teaching instrumentation 75 hours
*Regency Internship I 100 hours
Geographical education for the inclusion of students with special educational needs (NEEs) 75 hours
Teaching the geography of diversity 60 hours
Libras – Brazilian Sign Language 60 hours
* Regency Internship II 100 hours
*TCC - Course Term Paper in geography teaching 120 hours

* Academic activities of a mandatory nature.

Source: Prepared by the authors; survey carried out in July 2018.

Identifying what the resolution presents and knowing the syllabus of the subject “Fundamentals of school geography”, we present a counterpoint. We justify the intentional and programmatic discussion of issues that contemplate such fundamentals of education, because there are basic contents that will be “required” from the teacher at all times when he/she is called upon to demonstrate theoretical mastery, understanding of the social totality and the role of the school facing this complex.

In this way, “pedagogical trends and conceptions”, “education and its socio-economic, political and cultural relations”, the relations between “education, work and citizenship”, and the “social function of the school”3 are present themes, for example, in tests and competitions for admission of professors at any level and type of institution. In other words, these are general and totalizing aspects which academics of degree courses cannot leave their initial training course without having contact with, at the risk of a fragile training. As Saviani (2005) explains, a training proposal that is intended to be emancipatory must debate certain issues, as:

[…] implies the clarity of the social determinants of education, understanding the degree to which the contradictions of society mark education and, consequently, how it is necessary to position oneself in the face of these contradictions and disentangle education from ambiguous views, in order to clearly perceive which direction should be given to the educational issue. (SAVIANI, 2005, p. 100).

The question that arises when we analyze the syllabuses of the pedagogical subjects is whether the contents to be addressed make it possible to deal with the issue of teaching as an instrument of domination or liberation (SAVIANI, 2005; VESENTINI, 2005), an intrinsic aspect of the philosophical foundations of education.

Teacher education that wants to propose a critical path for the development of a less alienated teaching personality needs to target such conditions in theoretical frameworks that are able to clarify the contradictions of reality. Martins (2010) argues that, in the formative process of future teachers, the complex social fabric in which the profession is inserted cannot be disregarded, with teacher education being conceived “as an intentionally planned trajectory for the formation of individuals, for effectiveness of a certain social practice” (MARTINS, 2010, p. 14).

However, it was verified in the analyzed object what Mendonça (2013) also observed and argued in his work, the fact that the curricular guidelines are not fully objectified in the pedagogical proposals, which is due to a series of reasons (bureaucratic, political, ideological, etc.), because according to the author:

We are aware of the strong influence of official documents in the delimitation and elaboration of PPPs for courses for the training of students in their different levels of education, however the relationship is not linear, it is contradictory and mediated by the actions of teachers and even more observing that the curriculum is not reduced to what is manifested in documents or even on the discursive level. […] Added to this is the counter-discourse and the desire to break with what is not considered adequate to what is intended. It is in the instituting process that these issues are manifested. (MENDONÇA, 2013, p. 132).

In the pedagogical project analyzed, the objectification of the precepts of Resolution Number 02/2015 occurred in a disfigured or limited way. This may also occur in degree courses at other institutions, and, in part, it is due to the autonomy of each collegiate body - something that is important to defend -, but it may be occurring due to theoretical influences from the paradigm of the dominant ideology linked to the formation of human capital, present in some references that are dedicated to didactics. Regarding this aspect, Martins (2015) explains that this ideology, focused on rationalization-reflection and on the apology of experiential knowledge, “by giving primacy to the teacher and his training (experience and self-knowledge), what is at the heart of contemporary educational crisis, that is, the social function of the school, is not the focus” (MARTINS, 2015, p. 21, emphasis added).

When the discussion regarding the social function of the school is proposed through a regulation that defines basic guidelines to be followed in initial teacher education, it may happen that it does not aim at the concrete level to the satisfaction of what was previously thought, due to the dominant ideology which emphasizes the practical application of knowledge.

The second point that we raised in our analytical reflection on Resolution Number 02/2015 and the pedagogical curricular proposal of the degree in geography course at UEL, is still based on the salient aspects prescribed in the aforementioned article 13, paragraph 2. The issue is the aforementioned “training in the area of public policy and education management” (BRASIL, 2015, p. 12), which degree courses should ensure in their curricula. This article is a summary of the previous article, number 12, with broader content, divided into three sections and several paragraphs, which establish all the parameters of initial training, among which are those described in item I, paragraph:

[…] b) principles of social justice, respect for diversity, promotion of participation and democratic management; […]. g) research and study of specific and pedagogical contents, their foundations and methodologies, educational legislation, organization and management processes, teaching work, funding policies, evaluation and curriculum. (BRASIL, 2015, p. 10).

In our assessment, we observe that in the new curricular proposal for the degree in geography at UEL there is only one thematic topic that timidly approaches the point related to “management”. This affinity, which appears in the syllabus of the discipline of “educational policies”, brings “administrative aspects” when dealing with the theme “organization of the public education system in Brazil”4. A 60-hour discipline, developed in one semester of the course, which as its name shows, addresses training in the area of public policy, however, not explaining topics such as “management processes” and not even “financing policies”, as determined by the guidelines. Its syllabus presents other themes, such as “education as a social and cultural practice and the school as one of the educational spaces; historical formation of the school organization and its educational projects from the 20th century […]” (UEL, 2018, p. 07).

The question that we raise is: in the midst of these contents, will it be possible to approach the topic referring to “administration and democratic management”, considering the relevance imposed by the theme for teacher education and ratified by Resolution Number 02/2015?

Also at this point, it is highlighted that, in the pedagogical proposal of the analyzed course, the ability to “analyze, discuss and interact in the management of the school and education”5 is described in the profile of the graduate student. Thus, in addition to the limitation, there is another mismatch that leads us to a new question: how is it possible to expect, at the end of the process, that the professional who graduated from the course will be able to perform tasks that they have not learned and for which they do not have the domain? Learning something, according to the foundations of historical-cultural theory6, results from an intentional activity, carried out by the mediation process (BERNARDES, 2012; MARTINS, 2015; OLIVEIRA, 1997).

Furthermore, in allusion to the purpose of initial training for the exercise of teaching and acting in educational institutions, article 10 of Resolution Number 02/2015 presents the teaching work also in the context of school “management”, thus defining that:

The initial training is intended for those who intend to exercise the teaching of basic education in its stages and modalities of education and in other areas in which pedagogical knowledge is foreseen […]. Teaching activities also include acting and participating in the organization and management of basic education systems and their educational institutions […]. (BRASIL, 2015, p. 9, emphasis added).

Once again, emphasis is given to the essential theme for teacher education: participation in organization and management. It is also interesting to note in this article another important aspect related to the subject who intends to enter a degree course, the issue of professional choice, their identification with the course and future work, the real interest in seeking initial training and teaching practice. The responsible choice to seek the knowledge of the exercise of a given activity is the first step towards building a professional identity, a relevant aspect linked to self-knowledge. “Knowing yourself” and “wanting to belong” to a group to contribute to its effective work is the principle for learning that makes sense and empowers the individual in the challenge of facing reality.

Corroborating this argument, it is also coherent that article 11 of Resolution Number 02/2015 specifies that “Initial training requires a project with its own licensure course identity articulated with the bachelor’s degree […]” (BRASIL, 2015, p. 9), and this is the third point that we will highlight in this analytical commentary regarding document appraisal. This point concerns the admission and enrollment of the academic in the degree in geography course at UEL. With regard to the precept of a course project with its own identity, there is a relative lack, since admission to the degree in geography course at the analyzed institution takes place in the basic area of admission (ABI), which is carried out through the approval in the entrance exam7, in which the candidate enrolls to study geography, licentiate/bachelor, selecting the shift (morning or night), not being necessary, at first, to choose the qualification that he/she intends to pursue.

Describing the profile of the courses analyzed in his thesis, Mendonça (2013) states that the single entry for two qualifications is what occurs in most geography courses in the country and points out the possible limits of this way of conceiving teacher education: “This hinders the training with its own identity, encouraging a teacher professionality planned from the beginning of the course, articulating solid formation” (MENDONÇA, 2013, p. 131).

In the specific case analyzed, for those who intend to practice teaching, in accordance with the pedagogical proposal of the degree in geography course at UEL, in force since 2019, in its section 11.1.4, it establishes that “in the renewal of enrollment for the second semester the student must opt for the Qualification: Licentiate”. This rule exists due to the aforementioned “single entry”, the ABI for the two qualifications (bachelor’s/licensing). In the curriculum proposal that ran in the geography degree at UEL until 2018, for example, there was a remnant of the old “3+1” model (three years of training in specific science, geography; one year of disciplines and internship experience in the field of education), however in a slightly more balanced format, the “2+2”, in which the same limitation pointed out in Mendonça (2013) is observed, the difficulty of a professional training with its own identity since the beginning of the process. However, there was this adaptation in the new proposal, maintaining the ABI, but presenting the choice of qualification from the first year of the course, enabling the academic to contact the disciplines of the professionalizing axis during the four years of their training.

Thus, we conclude the first section in which we present certain points of the analyzed curriculum that apparently express contradictions in relation to what is requested by the resolution. In the second section, our intention is to argue more specifically about the issue of the basic area of admission and the formative duality, an old impasse on the conception of degree courses in geography in the country.

Idealism and dichotomies as a formative possibility

From here, we will specifically discuss the dilemma presented in the apparent plan and which is related to the essence of many training courses for geography teachers in Brazil, which refers to the duality of the training, the hybridity of the courses. This issue, which concerns the identity of licentiate or bachelor’s degree courses, has been discussed since the beginning of the 1980s and, as seen in the analysis presented above, has not yet been fully overcome.

Thus, we bring the argument of the geographer Ariovaldo Umbelino de Oliveira and his position against the new conception for degrees, when the first experiences of courses in which the entry is in specific qualification begins in Brazil. In 1984, Oliveira (1993) published a work in the journal Orientação, number 5, of the Geography Institute of the University of São Paulo, criticizing the current trend in geography courses at the time, claiming that:

This division creates between us a false duality between professor and researcher, which has been the flag of geographers who plead for the separation between degree courses for teacher training (licensing) and those for training researchers (the “geographic professionals), which today have much of their practice limited by the State’s planning apparatus. (OLIVEIRA, 1993, p. 29).

Thus, not believing in duality and defending the maintenance of the current training model (the single entry and the “3+1”), the author argued that this “course division flag” could only contribute to the further impoverishment of the geography and for the “natural death” of its teaching. However, a contradiction is evident in the author’s understanding when he distinguishes between the occupations of professional geographers and teachers – the first is given to planning. So there are, yes, two functions, two distinct “beings” that require specific skills, worked on in specific courses.

However, research indicates that it is difficult to aim satisfactorily, in a specific licensure qualification, as also observed by Souza (2009), Lopes (2010), Martins (2010) and Mendonça (2013), a “hybrid” course fully forming the geographer and the educator.

However, this is the premise found in the pedagogical curricular proposal of the degree in geography at UEL, which in its section 9.1 (“General objective”), establishes that “The Geography Course […] shall enable the full training of the geographer and the educator […]” (UEL, 2009, p. 2). Referring to the licensure qualification, this premise is perceived as a mistake. We can consider it an idealism, an abstraction. The regulations in the field of teacher education require that the pedagogical projects of licentiateship courses guarantee the constitution of the capacities aimed at in basic education, which, in fact, we agree, a lot.

However, following the same line as Oliveira (1993), Calai (2013), an intellectual reference in the training of geography teachers, defended, in 1999, the training of the “educator geographer”. This seems to be the parameter adopted in the pedagogical proposal analyzed. The author argues that the formation of the geographer must contemplate two perspectives that are not placed hierarchically. For the professional trained in geography, according to Calai (2013), there is a “technical function” and a “social function”, and in this role would be the teaching activity carried out by the geographer. For the author:

[…] there is no sense in a dichotomization between the bachelor and the licentiate: the two are one and, as such, they should have the same importance regarding the aspects of training, structuring and the content developed. (CALAI, 2013, p. 106).

This idealism is not verified in reality, in which this duality is very present. Interestingly, it was not possible to find the “social function” described by Calai (2013), and defended by other academics, in any place, such as on the official website of the Association of Brazilian Geographers (AGB) and even less on Law nº 6.664/ 1979, which regulates the profession of the geographer. On the page of the remarkable association it is described that:

To become a geography professional (teaching or technician) it is necessary to have some skills, such as: ability to read and interpret various documents (landscapes, photographs, radar images, orbital scenes, maps, graphs, tables, texts); analytical and synthetic reasoning; scientific mindset; desire to be useful to society; taste and availability for field work; sensitivity to issues related to space production processes (environmental, social, economic, political and cultural issues). (AGB, 2020).

All skills are, therefore, essential for the geography teacher. However, even the excerpt mentioning teaching (and far from attributing it as “the social function” of the profession), the aforementioned association does not advocate as skills of geography professionals, for example, the planning and execution of educational activities in formative spaces. No, this is a teacher’s specific aptitude!

Thus, given the explanations in this excerpt, we are convinced and, like Lopes (2010), we believe that it is a mistake to intend the integral formation of the geographer and the educator. This is because there is a risk of one coming at the expense of the other, because, for the author, “because it conveys greater status and prestige, bachelor’s education has better conditions to be effective and teacher education becomes secondary and inferior” (LOPES, 2010, p. 76).

The addressed course (licentiate) recognizes that it seeks training, through a single training, to exercise in two professional areas. However, beyond the limit presented by Lopes (2010), it is possible that, as observed in another research, teachers focused on bachelor degrees “do not consider teacher training as their task, transferring this role to the disciplines of the education area” (MENDONÇA, 2013, p. 149). In this sense, Lopes (2010) also argued that the curricular and administrative organization of the educational institutions established the dichotomy “training for a licentiate in geography” and training for a “bachelor’s geographer”, and based his criticism on two other intellectuals who are experts in the subject, José William Vesentini and Antônio Carlos R. de Moraes, to state that “although the destination of most graduates of these courses remains the classroom, the departmental goal is, in most cases, the formation of a bachelor” (LOPES, 2010, p . 76).

An example of this problem is observed when preparing a scientific event, a cycle of debates, etc., for most professors, it is important to bring an expert speaker on some geography topic to be studied and discussed with academics, and extracurricular spaces are not proposed in order to discuss education.

Thus, we address here these important aspects that stand out in the analysis of the “appearance” category, which can even manifest, as we have seen, abstract ideas. The appearance, that is, the documents, the description of objectives and contents to be addressed, is an interesting perspective to be analyzed because it is directly related to the essence category, that real experience of teacher education, the objectification in the relationship between trainers and academics in the concrete mediation process. Thus, one reveals the other, since, in certain cases, knowing the appearance, one can recognize the essence.

Final considerations

It is fully understood that in all training proposals, especially in a four-year course, considering its structure and conditions, there will always be time limitations to train the professional who, in the case of teaching, will have to master content, know methodologies and develop political awareness.

However, our effort recognized a certain abstentionism from the ethical-political axis of teacher education. Our analysis verified the normative and the pedagogical proposal, identifying contradictions and highlighting possible weaknesses in the training process of the geography teacher. Even respecting the legal requirements for the distribution of workloads in the training axes of the curriculum, there is little space for the discussion of some essential questions for the teacher in the subjects and syllabuses of the professionalizing axis.

We reiterate that the licentiate is a course that necessarily needs an identity and space for the academic to be based on the theoretical-philosophical bases of education, forming an understanding of their conceptions based on historical and social contexts. Such theoretical aspects, in addition to expanding the worldview and intellectual capacity, enable the development of the subject’s critical capacity and, subsequently, the possible existence of an emancipated teacher.

Thus, the effort to rethink the disciplines and their themes is considered in order to avoid falling into pragmatism and utilitarianism, making the proposal for professional training always focus on technical instrumentalization. On the apparent plan, observing only the description of the contents in the official document, it is possible to affirm that what happens in essence is an attempt to be objective, restricted to the utilitarian. On the other hand, if the ethical-political perspective is sought in essence, if it is necessarily mediated in the classroom, it is recommended that it should be clearly described in terms of the pedagogical proposal, thus avoiding mistaken readings and opinions regarding the qualitative characteristics of the course.

Finally, we recognize that the objectification of a curriculum is a political action. This certainly has always been and will continue to be a dilemma present in curriculum proposals at all levels of education: the curriculum designed, and the curriculum proposed. Mendonça (2013) relies on another author to argue that, in the departments, the construction of the course’s curricular project is always “a dynamic product of continuous struggles between dominant and dominated groups, the result of agreements, conflicts, concessions and alliances” (LOPES , 1999, p. 86 apud MENDONÇA, 2013, p. 132). This perplexity is also possibly the cause in our object, of the small “disfiguration” of the proposal established in Resolution Number 02/2015. Thus, to overcome possible weaknesses that arose in the apparent plan of the object in question, an effort is needed within the real experience of mediating certain intentions, recognizing that the appearance needs to be well-positioned, as, in many moments, they reveal the observer the essence of concrete.

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* The author take full responsibility for the translation of the text, including titles of books/articles and the quotations originally published in Portuguese.

2- As Konder (1998) explains, dialectics as an analytical method appears in ancient Greece with Heraclitus of Ephesus (5th century BC), the first to argue about the fact that everything exists in constant change, with conflict as the master of all things In his effort to understand the contradictions present in reality through dialectical understanding, in the nineteenth century, the German thinker Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) conceptualized three categories of his proposal for the analysis of movement, which are: the thesis, the antithesis and the synthesis.

3- Cf. Notice No. 017/2013, “establishing the special instructions for the realization of the public competition of tests and titles for the position of teacher, in the disciplines of the curriculum matrix and pedagogue, of the magisterium framework, of the Secretary of State for Education of Paraná - SEED / PR”. Available in: https://www.pucpr.br/processo-seletivo-concursos/concurso-publico-do-quadro-proprio-do-magisterio-do-estado-do-parana-edital-seap-n-o-0172013/. Accessed: 16 May 2018.

4- Cf. menu of the discipline described in The UEL/CEPE/CA Case, no. 9677.2017.37.

5- Cf. section 10.3 “Profile of the graduate in geography”.

6- Historical-cultural theory has its origins in the studies of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934).

7- Cf. Resolution CEPE nº 044/2017.

Received: April 02, 2020; Revised: April 29, 2020; Accepted: June 30, 2020

Adriana Regina de Jesus Santos holds a doctorate in education from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), professor of the Master’s and Doctoral Program in Education at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) and leader of the Research Group by CNPq: Curriculum, Training and Teaching Work.

José Alexandre Gonçalves holds a master’s degree in education from the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL), professor at the state education network in the state of Paraná and member of the Research Group by CNPq: Curriculum, Training and Teaching Work.

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