Introduction

In the contemporary social context, marked by deep transformations on the ways knowledge is produced and diffused, teaching work has become more complex, adopting new configurations, which highlights the education of teachers and the performance of professionals who have been educating teachers, that is, teachers educators. Although the field of teacher education has been receiving increasing attention from researchers in education, a theme that still remains fairly unexplored in this area refers to the concept and role of teacher educators.

Vaillant, analyzing the research landscape in Latin America, has already alluded to the lack of studies on the topic, considering the central role of the teacher educators in professional development. Concerning the discussion of quality in educational processes of teacher educators in Brazil, ^{Gatti et al. (2019}) equally emphasize the centrality of teacher’s role and observe that, among the countless factors that affect teachers' development, the “most obscure topic in discussions and field research in the area of teacher education is the figure of the teacher educator, the one who does not only conduct teachers’ primary education but also acts in permanent education.” (^{GATTI et al., 2019}, p. 271).

Studies on teacher educators mainly approach the educator who works on teaching courses, which means initial education. Nonetheless, if we consider teaching education from a perspective of professional development, which encompasses education along life and career, the role and work of educators emerge in various times and spaces of the teaching education, even with many denominations, functions and professional statutes.

This article focuses on school educators - professionals who act in municipal and state public systems and who are responsible for the continuous education of the school faculty of such systems. There is a great dispersion in studies about school teacher educators, concerning the diversity of denomination, roles and action space of these professionals. Research indicates that the uncertainty and the multiplicity of tasks that they execute, compromises their work, harming educational actions that should be core of what they do (^{ALMEIDA; SOUZA; PLACCO, 2016}).

Among the multiple attributions of school educators, an unexplored and relevant dimension refers to the work of such professionals alongside teachers beginning their careers. Several studies have been showing that the initial times in teaching are fundamental in the teacher's professional development, which reinforces the need of supporting devices for those beginning their careers. Nonetheless, institutional programs aiming at teaching induction are still considered incipient in Latin America (^{MARCELO; VAILLANT, 2017}). Analyzing research data on continuing education and teaching insertion policies in Brazil, ^{André (2015}) corroborates that even considering some promising initiatives in states and cities, supporting policies that focus on teachers beginning their careers are still very scarce. Formative actions are often individualized, focusing rather on the teacher and not in the school as a collective space of learning.

Several analyses pointed to the relevance of school educators in the welcoming and following-up actions for beginners. Perceiving these agents' role and performance in this process as articulators of welcoming actions in a collaborative perspective can have a significant impact in the professional development of beginning teachers.

From these considerations, the aim of the present paper is to contribute to a reflection around the school educator, examining the nature and specificity of their work, as well as their role and performance perspective in the induction processes of beginning teachers. The text is presented as a theoretical essay, dialoguing with the authors that have been discussing these issues.

In order to meet the proposed objective, the essay is divided into four parts. The first one reflects on the educator’s work, as approached by authors who have been discussing the nature of such professional activity. Next, it examines the several configurations in which the role school educators have been playing in teaching systems, and the possibilities in educational action of these actors. Then, the relevance and perspectives of action of the education in processes of professional induction of beginning teachers are discussed. Finally, from the analysis of studies considered in the text, some important aspects are emphasized, contributing to the development of initiatives in the perspective of induction processes and beginning teachers.

2. The work of Teacher Educators

The term educator refers to a relatively new job in the Education field, with great dispersion of meanings and diversity in their approach to the studies about the theme, which means a difficult conceptual discussion.

In an attempt to clarify the concept of Teacher Educators we seek aspects that are common to an activity that involve subjects with very diverse professional profiles, work conditions and perspectives of action contexts. In addition to a semantics discussion, we see that this issue refers to the analysis of education work's nature as a defining element of the teacher educators’ role.

One relevant contribution to understand the work of the educator is brought by authors that discuss the question in the perspective of underlying logic of such activity, recovering the origin of the term, in the evolution chart of the educator's role.

According to ^{Beillerot (1998}), the technical term educator, in its French origin, began being used in 1970, and related to the expansion of adult professional education for different professions. More recently, it is connected to the idea of permanent education, understanding the adult as an unfinished human being, who continues learning throughout life and, therefore, has the right and power to educate themselves.

As we discuss the use of the term in education, considering the three poles of the pedagogical situation - knowledge, student and teacher -, the author observes that while the classical task of the teacher is to teach a knowledge, which privileges the axis teacher-knowledge, the task of educating privileges the axis teacher-student, which means that education prioritizes the relation between the educator and the adult subject being educated. Thus, although teaching is present in the activity of educating, "the work of the educator consists in establishing and implementing procedures that allow adult learning" ^{BEILLEROT, 1998}, p. 20, translated by the authors).

Similarly, ^{Charlot (2001}, p. 5) reminds the anchoring of the technical term education in the professional universe and observes, “knowledge can be taught, but individuals are educated”. According to the author, teaching and educating activities are oriented by distinct logic: if the logic of teaching is knowing how to teach and the master’s role is to transmit knowledge, understood in a magisterial way or going through processes of construction by the student, the logic of education is the logic of practices and the role of the educator is to prepare for the practice. The author emphasizes that educational knowledge is not only fundamental but it is related to the development of contextualized, organized and objective-oriented practices. The idea of education can be seen as an insertion in a professional culture that makes sense to the activity of those subjects under education, since “culture is not only a set of knowledge, practices and behaviors [...] it is also a relationship of sense with the world” (^{CHARLOT, 2001}, p. 9).

^{Barbier (2013}) also observes the emergence, in the last decades, of education cultures and proposes analyzing the concept in the scope of activities of adult education. According to the author, if in teaching the emblematic figure is the teacher, "in the space of education the emblematic figure is the educator as an organizer of specific learning situations and whose social value is connected to the amplitude of this learning" (^{BARBIER, 2013}, p. 154). The author also highlights that while the teaching culture entails differentiation between the times of school and work, in the culture of education there is a close relationship between the education space and professional environment.

Another appropriate source of reference for such discussion are studies that reflect on this thematic in the perspective of educators' activity and contexts of action.

As she analyses the concept of an educator having the studies in Latin America as framework, ^{Vaillant (2003}) addresses the imprecision of the term considering the multiplicity of the spaces where educators act. The author situates the educator's activity in the field of adult education, but notes that it is wider and focused on development of the student, fostering abilities of thinking and learning, while the concept of education "refers to the development of more specific abilities for performing a particular role" (^{VAILLANT, 2003}, p. 11).

The author asserts the diversity of activities that belong to the educator:

The educator of educators is the one who is dedicated to the teacher education and performs several tasks, not only initial and permanent education of teachers, but also plans of innovation, advisement, planning and execution of projects in areas of formal, non-formal and informal education (^{VAILLANT, 2003}, p. 12).

^{Oliveira (2015}) emphasizes that the subjects that act in the continuing education of teachers, just as well as for Valliant (2003), are called educators of educators. The author also points out that the work of an educator of educators in continuing education is a consequence of changes that have been taking place in the education of teachers, which demand continuous professional development. According to Oliveira (2015, p. 24), the educator of educators is

[..] a mediator between the objectives aimed by education policies and the educational needs of school teachers. [He also emphasizes], [...] it is necessary to know the changes that incurred in the conception of teacher education, mainly about continuing education to understand who this new professional is.

In this same perspective, Mizukami (2005-2006) takes the notion of educator in a comprehensive perspective, highlighting that for beyond the teachers in higher education, educators in basic education that receive and follow up future teachers doing internships and teaching practices are also considered educators of educators. According to the author, they are

[...] educators all professionals involved in the educational process of learning of teaching future teachers or those who are developing teaching activities: teachers of subjects of teaching and supervised internship, those of pedagogic subjects overall, those of specific subjects of different areas of knowledge and those who receive future teachers MIZUKAMI, 2005-2006, p.3).

Her ideas are in line with the one from Marcelo Garcia (1999) as it includes among educators those who collaborate in the education of pre-service teachers as practice tutors, that is, the teachers in basic education that receive, assist and supervise the students in their supervised internship.

The great diversity in work conditions and in the professionals' contexts of action who play the role of education indicates a difficulty in delimiting a concept. However, the contributions of various authors allow highlighting some defining elements in the educators' work:

Firstly, this professional is an adult educator, which means considering that subjects in education, either initial or continuing, hold a repertoire of knowledge, conceptions and beliefs, all built in their life journey and education. Particularly in the case of continuing education, this adult is a professional who has experiential knowledge and this guides their relation with the knowledge in their education.

A second aspect to be considered is that the teacher educator is the one who educates for practicing a professional activity, assuming that the profession is defined in this workspace and involves situations oriented by and for the pedagogical practice.

Another relevant aspect is that educating is a relational activity, which involves interaction among human beings endowed with autonomy, will, values and feelings and that, when forming and forming themselves reflect and assign sense to the formative activity, what refers to motivation and intentionality of subjects under education.

Finally, the educator’s work is a social activity, developed in distinct institutional and sociocultural spaces, constantly transforming themselves, which constitute and delimit the actions of the involved actors, but equally affected by the actions of such agents, which confers a political dimension to this work.

Therefore, we can conclude that the professional activity of educators of educators integrates these several elements and constitutes itself in the dynamic between the conditions set to the worker and the ways to perform the professional activity developed by the subjects on their individual or collective practice in sociocultural and historically built contexts. Thus, it is fundamental to examine how the role of school educators, when educating, has been developing in the school spaces and teaching systems in Brazil's reality.

3. School educators: who they are and what their role is

Over the last decades, a consensus about the importance of teacher education in the educational process has been reached. This recognition has initiated a transforming movement in educational policies, especially concerning continuing education (^{OLIVEIRA, 2015}). The concordance around the relevance of education throughout the career, in the perspective of professional development, has been reverberating in public teaching systems that began to recognize the importance of counting with professionals responsible for continuing education and orientation of pedagogical activities in the school.

Educators that act in continuing education, on either schools or teaching systems' technical staff, although under different denominations, have in common the fact of coming from the teaching body of basic education. They are, therefore, closer to the school universe and everyday practice issues, dealing with education demands that focus on learning situations and processes, despite not always being able to properly play this role.

The acting of school educators is not recent in the Brazilian education and it has been accommodating different configurations throughout the time. When discussing the role of the pedagogical coordinator, ^{Placco, Souza and Almeida (2012}) argue that the figure of a professional responsible for following the work of teachers in schools generally arises from the process of implementing educational reform. In Brazil, the origin of pedagogical coordination originated in school inspection, from legislation regulating majors in the programs of Pedagogy according to the legal report n. 252/69, which introduces the idea of “education specialist”. However, in 1960, the innovative experiences of experimental schools included teams of professionals in charge of pedagogical coordination. This idea has expanded after Law 5692/71, which established the reform of 1^st and 2^nd degree education, which led most states to institute the figure of an agent responsible for supervisory action, at the system level and / or in schools.

Currently the school educator's presence can be noticed in most teaching systems in the country. As a rule, these professionals are experienced teachers, selected or referred to act in guidance, coordination or supervision, in both system and school space levels.

Wide research about continuing education and the agents responsible for such education in different regions of Brazil have attested that the figure of the school educator is present in all public teaching spheres research and that this role, with different denomination and attribution is instituted in educational legislation (^{DAVIS et al. 2012}; ^{PLACCO; SOUZA; ALMEIDA, 2012}). There are functions or more rarely job titles² that admit different denominations: school supervisor, teaching supervisor, pedagogical coordinator, coordinator teacher, pedagogical advisor, school advisor etc.

The scenario where school educators act is very diverse, as well as their professional statute, education, work conditions and stability, which makes it hard to understand them as a clearly defined professional body. The work of these educators is complex and blurred, as well as the several denominations given to this professional group.

^{Andre (2012}, p. 215) describes the school educator and his role:

The school educator is a professional who is part of the management team and generally undertakes the role of pedagogical coordination, becoming one of the responsible for the implementation of the political and pedagogical project, through continuing education of teachers and through the assessment of the actions carried out, based on the success in students’ learning.

Still discussing the profile and characterization of the school educator, Marcelo Garcia (1999) mentions that the educator of educators is an agent or a facilitator of changes who is in charge of activities of planning, development and assessment of school processes and teachers' continuing education. Thus, the school educator has an important role as both articulator and mediator of pedagogical issues, in the service of learning situations.

It is worth verifying how these perspectives on the school educator performance are defined in their acting in teaching systems. When analyzing processes and continuing education practices in Brazilian public systems, ^{Davis et al. (2012}) have attested that, despite the advancements in improving educational actions and the concern about meeting educational needs of teachers, more individualized educational modalities are still predominant, focusing on the teacher and developed as courses and lectures, in detriment of collaborative perspectives focused on school and aimed at developing school teams.

The authors identify two mains groups of educators: the professionals linked to the learning networks themselves, which includes the ones that are part of central staffs, responsible for the organization, the coordinators, responsible for monitoring education policies in the schools; and the external experts, linked to partner institutions, hired to provide consulting and education courses. They also highlight the importance of having stable staff from their own networks in order to define partnerships, since they have a deeper knowledge of school demands. The maintenance of stable and well-composed staff also makes education policies less vulnerable to changes in government.

Among the educators of teaching systems, the figure of the pedagogical coordinator has a central role in educational activities in the school space. ^{Davis et al. (2012}) highlight the relevance and complexity of the coordinator’s tasks, especially if we see school as a space of permanent education for teachers. They are responsible for promoting moments of collective work for the reflection about the practice and exchanging experiences, for monitoring, in schools, the education offered to teachers, for the support in pedagogical activities, acting as a more experienced partner. However, this professional is not always educated and has the necessary resources to develop such a complex work, which results in professional loss.

This analysis is corroborated on the research done by ^{Placco, Souza e Almeida (2012}), which investigated the role and work of pedagogical coordinators in different states of Brazil. The authors verified that the multiple roles attributed to coordinators compromise their performance as educators. Despite declaring they consider teachers' education an important part of what they do, the actions they describe demonstrate little clarity regarding their own performance in teachers continuing education and also indicate several difficulties to develop them. The authors also point to the lack of specific education in the exercise of pedagogical coordination, considering the formative specificities and necessities of a role that cannot be confused with the one of a teacher.

The analysis about the performance of the pedagogical coordinator are important to think induction processes, since the studies about continuing education of teachers also indicate the lack of specific political initiatives related to the support of beginning teachers in Brazil (^{ANDRE, 2012}a; ^{DAVIS et al., 2012}; ^{MARCELO; VAILLANT, 2017}). Thus, as the ultimate extent, the pedagogical coordinator is the responsible, in the school, for the welcoming and meeting specific demands of teachers who are starting their careers. When this professional does not find time, conditions and orientation for this task, the recurrent situation in our schools happens, when the beginner is left to chance, in the lonely journey where they face challenges in the initial times of teaching.

In this sense, some studies point to an important school educator profile, who does not always hold an institutional place, not having, therefore, recognition as an educator, but one who plays a role that beginning teachers recognize as essential: the experienced teacher.

Analyzing the policy of induction to teaching in Latin America, ^{Marcelo and Vaillant (2017}) mention that in many countries the acting of this teacher is recognized and institutionalized in induction processes, generally with the mentor’s denomination. The mentor is an experienced teacher, of a recognized teaching knowledge, with specific education to perform the educator’s role, who monitors and supports novice teachers. However, the authors highlight another agent who has not been recognized as an educator but plays an important role with beginning teachers: informal mentors, people who are chosen by their own beginning teachers to help them. Desimone et al. (2014, apud ^{MARCELO; VAILLANT, 2017}) indicate that informal mentors are interlocutors valued by beginners and should be integrated to the team's actions in induction processes.

Analyzing mentoring situations in Brazil involving experienced teachers as educators, monitoring beginners or acting as collaborators in interns' guidance (^{REALI; TANCREDI; MIZUKAMI, 2014}; ^{BENITES; SARTI; SOUZA NETO, 2015}), highlight the importance of developing collaborative processes in teachers education, integrating the actions of different educational agents in this process, also making a case for the necessity of educating educators for this task of educating others.

^{Altet (2003}), discussing the participation of experienced teachers in processes of continuing education in France, brings elements to think about the education of these agents when they become school educators. The author refers to these professionals as “teacher-educators” and based on Charlot’s distinction (1990, apud ^{ALTET, 2003}) between teaching and educating, observes that these “men of concepts” teachers, when assuming the role of educators, also become “men of mediation”, acting in the logic of practices. Mediation, as part of the educator’s role, is related to the recognition and diagnosis of the school reality and for the development of actions that modify or improve this reality.

The author considers three main necessary abilities educators must have: to aid teachers in the construction of their professional competences, monitor and, at the same time, favor the analysis of teaching practices and mastering the engineering of adult education. She stresses that such abilities are learned by experience, "from the lived practices, localized actions, education practices in context" (^{ALTET, 2003}, p. 65). Finally, the author asserts that learning this role requires the constitution of networks for exchanging professional practices and experiences, attempting to develop, at the same time, the "know-act" of each educator, a "collective competence", professional ethics and a socially built professionalism.

Thus, permanent dialogue between educators, teachers and other school actors becomes useful in the search of educational situated and quality processes, in a perspective of education focused on the school and on the educational needs of the own teachers.

The formative necessities presented by beginning teachers may be of different orders: the process of insertion and arrival in the school, lesson development, didactic organization and planning, class management, as well as facing the reality shock, all trying to overcome the survival period and consolidation in the profession (^{HUBERMAN,1992}). Therefore, it is about a "set of concerns, wishes, needs and problems felt or perceived by teachers in the development of the pedagogical process" (^{ESTRELA; MADUREIRA; LEITE,1999}, p. 30), often unclear for the beginning teachers themselves. Thus, the school educators have a determining role supporting and aiding the teacher, in the induction process, aiming at qualifying the teaching and, at the same time, teacher survival, specially the one considered a beginner, as well as, equally, school educators play a determining role improving actions performed by those considered experienced.

The analysis of the different roles and profiles of educators indicate that, in addition to the differences among them, looking at the educational needs of beginning teachers, as well as induction processes is a responsibility of different school actors, who, in a collaborative way, may (and should) increase welcoming opportunities to the demands presented by teachers and the professional context.

4. The work of the school educator: pertinence and relevance in teaching induction processes

Based on the premise that the educator is the one who is dedicated to the teacher education and performs different activities of support and advisement of teachers (^{VAILLANT, 2003}), both in the contexts of initial education and in the context of elementary education, it is worth reflecting upon the role of relevance of school educators in the induction process to teaching and professional development.

The induction process is considered to be a period in which the learning of the profession happens, when dilemmas, doubts and insecurities emerge, accumulate, requiring a welcoming and supporting attitude of teachers, especially beginners (^{MARCELO; VAILLANT, 2017}).

It is common that, when starting to teach, teachers face challenges related to content domain, classroom management, behavior in the classroom, developing pedagogical planning confidently and also situations related to existent bureaucratic aspects. This is a moment in which the teacher hopes to have the support and welcoming of a team who can help them overcome the obstacles and challenges, but this does not always happen.

Analyzing induction policies in Latin America, ^{Marcelo and Vaillant (2017}) observe that there is a consensus about the benefits that good quality induction processes have on teachers, schools and educational systems. The authors emphasize that, despite the informality of the processes in schools, this monitoring needs to translate into institutionalized programs: “policies of professional development for teachers should pay particular attention to the support that teachers who start teaching need” (^{MARCELO: VAILLANT, 2017}, p.1227; translation provided by the authors). In Brazil, these policies are still recent and restricted to initiatives of some states and municipalities, and do not contemplate all beginning teachers.

Concerning the concept of induction adopted here, ^{Nóvoa’s ideas (2017}, p.1124) provide our framework as he highlights that

the concept of induction, by its own etymological root, implies the idea of 'introducing' or 'taking it elsewhere'. Thus, any and all education actions can be considered 'professional induction'. However, in specialized literature, the concept has been used, above all, to characterize the initial phase of teaching work, as novice or beginning teachers. The traditions of different countries are very distinguished: teaching residences, probation periods, supervision terms, etc. [...]. But, regardless of the context, there is unanimous recognition of the importance of this period for the teaching professional life. Public policies have faced the transition between education and profession as the decisive phase of teacher professional development (^{NÓVOA, 2017}, p. 1124). the concept of induction,

We add on the discussion about induction, ^{Wong’s ideas (2004}), who thinks induction as

[...] a wide, consistent and continuous process of professional development, which is organized by a school district, to educate, support and retain new teachers and make them advance in a learning program throughout life (^{WONG, 2004}, p.42; translation provided by the authors).

Considering, therefore, the perspective of the aforementioned authors, one may understand induction as a process that does not begin with the insertion of the teacher in the professional practice, but encompasses a set of conditions that involve the social recognition and professional acknowledgment of teaching, formative practices in initial or continuing education, the support and monitoring of the beginning of a career. Such implies in understanding this process in a wider context of teaching professional development and points to the need for organized, structured, intensive and continuous induction processes, which address this period as part of a professional learning path over a career (^{WONG, 2004}).

This understanding refers to the necessity of articulating teacher educators in different education levels, having as a foundation educational processes that aim at promoting learning and developing beginning teachers, requiring a posture of attention, welcoming, domain of professional knowledge and constant investigation about teaching and the profession from the educator.

In this regard, Mizukami (2005-2006) asserts the importance of the construction of learning communities in schools and universities, in a perspective of collaborative work among teachers of schools and universities. The appointments she makes demonstrate the necessary articulation between the macro and micro contexts that surround teaching and the recognition of educational policies, as well as the functioning of the school context for the qualification of formative processes; demonstrating the necessary articulation between the policy of education and school policy, in a way that dialogues with the purposes and expectations. They also highlight the importance of a process that systematizes, monitors and assesses the actions developed, among which, specially, monitoring the activities carried out by the teachers, supporting them in their professional development.

^{Wong (2004}), analyzing programs of induction that maintain new teachers teaching and improving, equally highlights the relevance of beginning teachers be part of networks and study groups in a way to allow interaction among teachers who are considered beginner and the most experienced ones, so that the dialogue and sharing of ideas, yearning and challenges is possible, learning to respect each other’s work in a perspective of collective learning.

The importance of collaborative processes in teaching education is also asserted by ^{Calvo (2014}, p. 113) that says the professional teaching development has as "fundamental principal, the idea of horizontal and collaborative work between educators, specialists and teachers, which leads to revaluing the knowledge of actions and principles built through experience". She also points to the important dimension of learning from the other, "either as a role model or monitoring, with more teaching experience, good practices to share and that is willing to guide, advise, welcome and support" (Idem, p. 113).

We resume here the idea of a learning community, necessary for the teacher’s professional development and defended by ^{Nóvoa (2017}); ^{Wong (2004}); Mizukami (2005-2006). In this sense, school educators take the place in planning, organizing and systematizing processes in which collaborative learning, the value of different knowledge and the admission that there is production of professional knowledge in school are present. They also play the role of articulators in processes of collaboration between school and university, in the shared elaboration of the situation of professional development promotion.

Considering this, the educator's job moves away from the trivial and takes on the necessary protagonism, as a contemporary demand. As pointed out by ^{Altet (2017}), it is urgent to promote the collaboration among all educators actors, taking advantage of

[...] the diversity of education actors to build and deepen the professional cooperation between all the categories of educators, institutionalizing the devices and the moments of agreement, developing the work in staffs of different categories of educators around the same object of education, involving more the profession of teacher in education (^{ALTET, 2017}, p. 62).

This way, we understand that it is in the closeness between university and school, beginning and experienced teachers that intensified opportunities of professional development of all those who are involved with qualification of teaching and the profession, in a perspective of the learning community, as pointed by ^{Wong (2004}) are widened.

5. Some considerations to conclude

The present theoretical essay sought to bring elements for the discussion around the teachers' educator - the nature of their work and its relevance in the induction processes - a theme yet unexplored in the research about teacher education.

Previously discussions and contributions of several authors who helped us reflect upon the work of educators in the Brazilian contemporary reality point to the essential role of such professionals, in a society that was not yet able to provide education and proper work conditions to its teachers, which reverberates in the quality of the education offered to the population.

The delineation of the concept of teacher educator made clear the relevance that this professional may have in the process of professional development of teachers and in the search for the qualification of teaching processes. Having a perspective of integration, articulation, support and welcoming of school professionals is one of the requirements of such figure, especially when it comes to teachers, considering and recognizing the possibilities of resignification of the formative actions, aiming at developing in both professional and personal levels, especially for teachers in the beginning of their careers.

On the other hand, studies indicate problems and challenges in the evolution of a low recognized activity. Researches show that such discursive consensus around the professional development and collaborative cultures - if it is important to place teachers in the center of educational policies worries, stimulating continuing education initiatives more focused on school and teachers need - it does not imply, as reminded by ^{Novoa (2009}), in practices capable of transforming the reality of teacher education.

The assessment of the formative activity of school educators, oftentimes accumulating other attributions, show practices still oriented towards an individual perspective, developed in a fragmented way. If we consider that the education of educators to form other teachers is still insufficient, as mentioned by several other studies, we can infer that these professionals bring marks of a university formative model, far from actual teaching practices, guided by the logic of teaching rather than professional education logic.

Despite these questions, which are intrinsic to the process of constitution of a still hesitant professional activity, to use ^{Snoeckx’s expression (2003}), school educators reveal themselves as essential figures in induction processes of beginning teachers, having under their responsibility the development of welcoming and support actions needed for beginners, in a way to favor the gradual insertion in culture and in the professional group. Studies about this topic have shown that the teacher educator stands out when assuming the place of conducting and orientating processes in a collaborative perspective of elaboration, discussion and reflection about the educative needs of the professional group and dilemmas that they face daily at school, considering and privileging a contextualized education and focused on the school.

We understand that as we bring the discussion about the figure and work of the educator forward, themes still obscure in research about teachers, the aspects discussed in this essay may enrich the reflection about the fundamental role played by these professionals in the development of professional teachers. The analysis and contributions from different authors assert the necessity and urgency that research and academic studies about the challenges and difficulties of teachers in the beginning of their professional careers translate into policies and induction programs for beginners in public teaching systems.

Based on the analysis of studies from different authors in this study and sustained ^{Novoa’s ideas (2017}, p.1113) that: “it is vital to build models that value preparation, the starting point and professional development of the teacher”, we highlight some aspects to be considered, in the sense of contributing to the development of initiatives in the outline of induction processes for a beginning teacher. They are:

- To develop induction processes that cater to formative needs of beginner teachers, which means recognizing that beginners have specific needs, different from those of experienced teachers. Such requires identifying and understanding this set of concerns, difficulties and problems, but also the desires and interests felt by teachers and that are not always aware, which demands efforts to bring them to reflection (^{ESTRELA; MADUREIRA; LEITE, 1999}). In order to do so it is necessary to foster and listen to the beginners, acknowledging them as protagonists of their formative process, allowing them to have active roles in decision- making and on planning education activities.

- To comprehend school as a space of collaborative learning, which demands seeing induction processes as team work, involving experienced teachers as educators of colleagues, in which the beginner can educate themselves and collaborate with the education of their peers. As asserted by ^{Novoa (2009}, p. 66): “the idea of the school as a society must be established; a place of teamwork, dialogue and communication”. The role of the educator is mediating this process, organizing and coordinating situations that favor sharing experiences among educators, the interaction as a possibility of construction of ideas, the education of critical and creative thinking, which configures as actions and postures needed for the induction process.

- To constitute learning communities, which means understanding the construction of professional knowledge as a collective movement, aggregating people committed with common objectives, towards improving educational practices. The cooperation and interlocution between the different categories of professionals, school, teaching systems and university, benefit from the diversity of knowledge (^{ALTET, 2017}) and widen the possibilities of reflection and investigation of the challenges and dilemmas that surround teaching education and their problems in the school context. In this sense, the performance of school educators is essential in the consolidation of learning communities in which active teachers, school educators and the university educators are involved, in a process that favors the development of the school, teachers and educators.

- To promote educative strategies based on the analysis of teaching practices, which presumes educative processes that take the reflection on teacher’s practice as an educational source in the sense proposed by ^{Novoa (2009}, p. 35) of helping beginners to make a “deliberative transformation”, a movement that, from analysis and critical reflection, based on the situation, leads to deliberation, elaborating answers for the analyzed dilemmas, in a process of transformation and re-elaboration of the professional knowledge. Such is configured as “knowing how to analyze and being analyzed” (emphasis added). The analysis of teaching practices in a collaborative perspective, as we have emphasized, requires listening, observation and reflection developed in work groups, a process that may be promoted by educators, especially in induction processes for beginners.

- To understand continuing education as an adult education process, which means to consider that the adult teacher is someone with previous education, life, school and professional story, that constitutes a set of beliefs, conceptions and knowledge, which permeate and guide their professional actions. ^{Placco and Souza (2003}) consider that the adult teacher learns from experience, makes deliberate choices, is driven by overcoming challenges and learns by the practice when it is contextualized. Considering these characteristics is crucial for outlining good educational strategies for teachers, especially beginners, whose knowledge is more theoretical than practical and also due to the fact that they feel insecure about the complexity of daily school.

- To invest in teacher's education as a booster for the induction processes of beginning teachers, which refers to an essential question: who educated the educator for an effective work with beginning teachers in induction processes? We understand that in addition to educational processes developed by the teaching systems themselves, which should be systematic and continuous and need to include the discussion about beginning teachers, which was up then a lack in educators’ education, the university plays an important role in this process. ^{André (2012}) emphasizes the necessity of creating courses specifically for education and educator’s performance. An experience that may bring reference for this education is the Mestrado Profissional em Educação: Formação de Formadores (FORMEP) - Professional Master’s Degree in Education, which was created by one of the authors and a group of professors from PUC-SP (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo). In 2013, the Program was a pioneer in education of educators, prioritizing Elementary Education. A proposal of education theoretically based on the perspective of a critical and reflective professional and research was developed, dealing with collaborative work in school and an active role of professionals from Elementary Education, as intellectuals and leading actors of the actions, the Program computes data and evidence of changes in the work of administrators in their educational practices, especially in schools located in more vulnerable regions. We understand that innovative experiences such as this one show possibilities and indicate ways to proposals of education that approximate universities and professionals of elementary school, favoring the professional insertion of beginners and repercussions in the learning process of children and young students who attend school.

We believe that the aspects discussed here may inspire the accomplishment of more successful education practices. In this sense, we support the idea that the approximation and articulation between university and school, between different teacher educators and education spaces collaborate for adding value to the professional, as well as to the acknowledgement of teachers and a professional board capable of investigating, elaborating and producing professional knowledge about teaching in a collective and collaborative way, in a perspective of learning that is mutual and full of meanings, both for experienced and beginning teachers. The perspectives for working together are seen, in this context, as possibilities to consolidate the constitution processes of the professional identity of teacher educators in the contemporary world.