To begin with...

Living room, long three-seater sofa, two armchairs, a coffee table, with a small rug underneath. A visitor would arrive and the kitchen chair would take its place, mother would run to make the coffee, the TV would be turned off, the older people would sit down and the younger ones would settle on the floor or huddle together, on the arm of the sofa or on someone's lap, to listen to the "stories" told, lived and relived by relatives and ancestors we only knew from hearsay or black and white photos.

That's how it was back home. Stories were passed down from generation to generation, sparking our imagination, and that's how we got to know our neighbors and formed bonds of friendship. This is how we builded our culture and our identity (from the oldest to the youngest). As time went by, the habit of conversation became less and less present and today, in the digital age, words heard have given way to words read, with mobile devices, social networks and virtual relationships, but the longing and the need to talk remain.

This article presents an piece from a Master's research, considering the methodological stage and the use of the methodological tool "Conversation Circles" (Roda de Conversa), elucidating it as a formative and collective device for producing and deepening data for/in qualitative research in Education.

The Conversation Circles developed in this research is an adaptation of Warschauer's (2001, 2002) proposal when, in his doctoral thesis, he proposes training through experience, through educators' circles and reflection, breaking the cycle of reproducing the teachers' conception of school and teaching. Get inspiration from Warschauer (2001, 2002), we propose a movement of dialogue with the participants, understanding this as an instrument for producing data and for collective reflection, so that we consider this investigative approach as a possibility of understanding the meaning that the subjects find in the phenomenon studied, as a dialogical methodological instrument, through which voice and voice are empowered.

Since the Early Childhood Education stage, the conversation circle has been presented as an activity that involves language. With the aim of developing children's orality, expression and interaction, it has become a method used in this age group in the daily life of many schools, so as to become a permanent and daily pedagogical action, involving the ability to listen to others, exercise the way of expressing oneself, relate everyday facts, needs, desires, opinions and also elaborate justifications and arguments, situations that are possible with interaction between peers and teacher mediation.

Promoting conversation circles in schools can bring multiple benefits to children's development, such as playing a leading role in the construction of their own knowledge and building a dialogic space that allows students to express themselves and learn together.

Considering the same essence in the academic world, the Conversation Circle consists of a method of collective participation, through which the debate around a given theme enables dialog with the participants, who express themselves and listen to their peers and themselves through a reflective exercise.

In this way, the conversation that we developed in this study and in the research is conceived as a space for training, for exchanging experiences, stories and memories that are enhanced in the Conversation Circle as a methodological, technological, training and collective instrument for/in qualitative research in Education, emerging as a possibility to relive the pleasure of exchange, sharing, dialog between peers in a collective of work and profession, and also to deepen data full of richness and beauty, that is, of meaning and significance.

Based on these assumptions, in this section we present the methodological experience of the Conversation Circle during the course of a Master's research project, articulating the power of the Conversation Circle with the digital and technological devices present in our daily lives, which allowed for facilitating movements in relation to data, sound and image recording, transcriptions and records, without shying away from the power and human and qualitative essence of the field being researched.

We understand the potential of the Conversation Circle to foster dialogue, empowerment, the strengthening of individual and collective perceptions, the construction of integrated and meaningful knowledge, which enhanced the researcher's mediation. In this way, the Conversation Circle became an instrument based on "WE", with such a beautiful significance that it transcended paper and screen, allowing us to discuss the data, impressions, representations and resignifications of each participant individually and from a collective perspective.

Shall we have a chat? Come in, pull up a chair and make yourself at home!

The Conversation Circle and its Theoretical Assumptions

Based on ^{Warschauer (2001)}, we see the possibility of creating a dialogical, non-hierarchical space, a primary requirement of the methodological instrument, with a focus on group organization, the exchange of knowledge, reporting on experiences and experiences, promoting reflection on one's own practice, also constituting a formative action, since they propose reflection on what was experienced, creating a space for confronting the participants' points of view.

Conversation, in this sense, means understanding in depth, reflecting, pondering, sharing, as ^{Warschauer (2001, p.179)} reiterates:

Conversation not only develops the capacity for logical argument, but, by proposing the physical presence of the other, it also involves relational skills, emotions, respect, knowing how to listen and speak, waiting one's turn, inserting oneself into the fabric of the conversation, confronting differences, the effort to put oneself in the other's point of view, etc [...]

(^{Warschauer, 2001}, p.179).

For ^{Warschauer (2001, p. 126)}, undertaking the construction of participatory and collective social contexts such as the Conversation Circle means enabling favorable circumstances for the personal development of the participating subjects, "feeding the conversation networks and making explicit the stories built from them, whether individual or group", opening up ways to become aware of each subject's power of (trans)formation in the construction of a fairer, more collaborative and collective society. In this way, we understand that the Conversation Circle promotes a kind of collective resonance, the construction and reconstruction of concepts and arguments, through listening and dialog with peers and with oneself.

When intending to use and conduct this methodological tool, it must be considered that the dialog constructed represents the thinking and speaking of "individuals with different life histories and their own ways of thinking and feeling, so that the dialogs born of this encounter do not obey the same logic" (^{Warschauer, 2002}, p. 46).

The Conversation Circle is therefore a method of dialogic and collective participation around a given theme, through which subjects express themselves and listen to their peers and themselves through reflective action. One of the objectives is to socialize knowledge and exchange experiences through conversation between participants, with a view to building and reconstructing new knowledge on the proposed theme.

^{Warschauer (2004, p. 2)} explains that "community work and collective initiatives, of the most diverse nature, have been developed in a similar way for a long time." In this sense, the conversation asks permission from the balconies, the living rooms, the backyards, and arrives at the school as a teaching methodology and, in its natural course, reaches research in Education.

Thus, inspired by ^{Warschauer (2001}, ²⁰⁰²⁾, we adapted his proposal and studies on teacher circles, in a daring move to use it as a data production device for qualitative research and advance the perspective of dialogical proposition. An instrument for producing and deepening data by collecting narratives, experiences, stories and memories from the conversation circle, linking them to technological and digital devices and providing a formative-collective moment for the participants, as well as for the researcher, who is also part of the process.

Believing in the importance of the Conversation Circle (Roda de Conversa) for sharing knowledge, in line with ^{Silva (2020)}, it can be seen that the roda becomes an instrument that creates and provides collaborative and collective space and time, voice, time and listening to the subjects who participate in the movement. On the other hand, according to ^{Nóvoa and Vieira (2017, p. 24)}, it can be seen that the teaching profession is born from a dense individualistic matrix, contrary to other professions that have evolved in a collective sense, in turn, the way the school is organized contributes to the mismatch of paths that lead to conceptions of cooperation and collaboration. In this sense, the aspects of collaborative work are highlighted in the round table discussion, in order to portray that working individually limits improvement and brings a sense of fragmentation, creating the image of "isolated islands" in the development of the Pedagogical Advisor's work and knowledge.

The Conversation Circle reiterates the importance of the strength of working with peers and with peers, as a possibility for significant progress, as highlighted by ^{Nóvoa (2017, p. 24)} in the entry "collaboration", reinforcing the collective and collaborative dimensions, teamwork and joint intervention, as well as the importance of collective composition, of building "communities of practice" of consistent actions for pedagogical innovation, for research and for continuous training, which is born from the reinforcement of work.

In this essence, ^{Souza and Meireles (2018, p. 291)} point out that "the stories lived and told by the subjects allow the narrators to (re)signify their own existential journey", so we can compare narratives as perspectives that reveal knowledge, actions, flavors, stories, memories, references, inferences, feelings, knowledge, sensations, emotions, actions, formations, transformations and apprenticeships, constituents of human life, which we correlate with the daily life of Pedagogical Guidance, with the course of formative actions and with professional performance, because as the stories narrate with words and meanings the process of formation, they reveal the experience of those who describe their explanation.

The Conversation Circle Methodology and Qualitative Research in Education

Considering the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the qualitative approach, based on ^{Chizzotti (2003)}, the Conversation Circle relates theory and practice, providing tools for the interpretation of educational issues manifested and committed to practice, human emancipation and social transformation, considering the subjects, the context and the instruments used.

The Conversation Circle is also based on the assumptions of ^{Creswell (2010)}, since it understands the field as a natural environment in which the participants live, allowing them to share knowledge that contributes in a formative and reflective way to the development of their professional performance, taking into account the political-pedagogical dimension and its formative role, since the participants in the research are historical subjects who, in forming, also form themselves and establish consonance with the theoretical and epistemological basis enunciated.

For the purposes of the proposed argument, our studies deal with the professional constitution (actions and knowledge), in order to delve into the specificities and particularities of the field, since narratives, experiences, stories and significant and relevant memories are not found in documentary archives. To this end, the interlocution of the Conversation Circle held in March 2023 with the subjects of the research, a collective representing Pedagogical Advisors from a public municipal network located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, is taken.

We understand the subjects participating in this methodological stage (Guidance Counselors) from the point of view of the constitution of their teaching identity, because they are teachers first and foremost. The principle of collectivity underpins one of the pillars of the profession and of everyday school life, a working principle reiterated by ^{Oliveira (2007)}, when he refers to spaces for exchange and sharing of knowledge in networks, in a way that is not hierarchical, but rather dialogued:

it is possible to say that the objective of this research is not only complex thinking - which allows us to think and practice breaking with the fragmentations and hierarchies between different types of knowledge, making room for the understanding that knowledge/values are woven into networks in which there is no hierarchy or obligatory order and, therefore, for more dialogue, more democracy and more solidarity between the different groups and subjects interacting in different spaces/time

(^{Oliveira, 2007}, p. 13).

In order to promote a space, according to ^{Oliveira (2007)}, we sent the invitation directly to the selected Pedagogical Advisors and, after completing a Research Questionnaire and screening with inclusion/exclusion criteria: professionals in effective practice, in different cycles of their development and professional performance, with diverse and approximate realities and contexts, subdivided into three categories: "beginner" (1 to 3 years of work - probationary period), "stable": from 4 years of work and "experienced": from 10 years of work. We also took into account the specificities of their work and the teaching methods in which they work, namely: Early Childhood Education - Nursery and Pre-School and Primary Education (initial grades - 1st to 5th grade and final grades - 6th to 9th grade), in order to guarantee the representativeness of these professionals.

Considering the advance of technology, we opted to use technological and digital tools and remote (online) resources, understanding that they favored the development of the various actions, understood here as facilitating possibilities for the development of the research. Therefore, to carry out the Conversation Circle, we opted to use the "Google Meet" tool, a video call service that is widely used today, which allows the development of this method using its resources, through image and voice recording.

We also made use of the "Google Document - voice typing" resource, which made it possible to transcribe the recording of the Conversation Circle, organizing and recovering the time and dialogue of the speeches in their entirety. The anonymity of the participants was protected and they were identified by fictitious names, so that when the transcripts were used in the research, their identities were preserved.

Using the internet in full operation and the technological tools that favored the process, we began the academic-pedagogical immersion movement. The Conversation Circle is opened, understanding the importance of this resource for this methodological stage, which reminds us of Michel Serres (1991, apud^{Nóvoa; Vieira, 2017}) when he talks about the digital as the third revolution in human history.

The first was the invention of writing 5000 years ago. The second was the invention of the printing press, the printed book, 500 years ago. The third is today. In each of these revolutions, human beings started using their brains, thinking, communicating, relating and learning differently. Teacher training must understand this new reality, the web, not so much as a technological reality, but in its consequences for students' lives and learning processes

(Serres apud^{Nóvoa; Vieira, 2017}, p.39).

Nóvoa and Vieira provoke us to make a comparison and establish relationships between two technological inventions - the blackboard and the tablet, and it is difficult to imagine what the new spaces of knowledge and learning will be and what they will be like, but from some ideas we can glimpse possibilities of what future education could be. Inspired by one of these ideas, the Conversation Circle takes shape and allows us to establish similar relationships, using the digital space for a methodology that until then had only been carried out in person.

The blackboard is an "empty" device. By definition, the blackboard is an empty surface. It needs a teacher, who holds the knowledge, for it to become useful from a pedagogical point of view. The blackboard is a fixed device. When nailed to a wall, the blackboard fixes and defines a space, the classroom. School buildings, school furniture and the arrangement of pupils are designed to use the blackboard. The blackboard is a "vertical" device. The location of the blackboard at the top of the classroom inevitably induces "vertical" communication and a certain didactic action on the part of the teacher. There is no "horizontal" communication between students. Now let's change metaphor: from the blackboard to the tablet. The blackboard is an "empty" device, the tablet is "full". If the blackboard needs someone to write knowledge on it, the tablet is full of all possible and imaginable data and information, to which students have direct access. The blackboard is a fixed device, the tablet is mobile. If the blackboard fixes and defines the classroom space, the tablet brings mobility and can be used in the most different spaces, both physical and virtual. The blackboard is a "vertical" device, the tablet is horizontal. If the blackboard provokes "vertical" forms of communication, from a center, the tablet suggests individualized forms of study and "horizontal" relationships between students, between students and teachers, between people inside and outside the school

(^{Nóvoa; Vieira, 2017}, p. 39).

Considering the illustration of the metaphor presented by ^{Nóvoa and Vieira (2017)}, we approximate the Conversation Circle to the tablet: full, full of possible, imaginable (and unimaginable) data and information and which, built in this circle, allows direct access, brings mobility and can be used in the most different spaces, physical or virtual.

In this analogy, the Conversation Circle has a horizontal extension, a circular format, allows for eye-to-eye, face-to-face, looks at the singular, magnifies and enhances itself in the plural, in a horizontal relationship that is established between and with the people who participate in the round, building a reflective and collective way of being.

According to ^{Nóvoa and Vieira (2017)}, coinciding with the popularization of the expression and concept of the reflective teacher, the importance of giving teachers a voice emerged in the literature, with the development of life stories and biographical narratives, transiting subjective issues and relevant debates in/on/for the field:

About 30 years ago, coinciding with the popularization of the concept of the "reflective teacher", we saw the emergence of a literature on the importance of giving teachers a voice. Since then, life stories and biographical narratives have developed. This movement intersects with the question of subjectivities and also with debates on gender, which are particularly important in the field of teaching. Today, we recognize the importance of these "voices" and we know that they are essential for understanding the ways in which teachers enter the teaching profession. But we also know that it is necessary to build institutional and public spaces in which they can be heard

(^{Nóvoa; Vieira, 2017}, p. 38).

Recognizing the importance of these "voices", knowing that they are fundamental to understanding the professional constitution, as well as the need to build and provide institutional and public spaces so that they can make themselves heard, we felt the need and thought of this possibility to legitimize the presence of these professionals in these spaces, providing visibility and a voice to the subjects participating in this Conversation Circle.

In this sense, the people taking part in this round - the Guidance Counselors - recognizing the importance of the action and the process of producing knowledge for the field and for professional development, reiterate the lack of actions of this type, considering the gaps in spaces and times for dialogue about daily life (challenges, exchange of ideas and experiences) and accept the invitation to participate spontaneously, outside of conventional working hours, after a full day of professional activity, with the premise of discussion, dialogue, exchange, sharing and deepening of study with peers.

We then began the Conversation Circle by welcoming and thanking those present for their acceptance and participation, wishing them a warm welcome for this activity, as well as recognizing the importance of each and every one of them in this action, both personally and professionally, since we consider the daily demands and the Herculean task of reconciling agendas and schedules.

We present the slides sequentially, with a brief explanation of the research process, the significant data collected with the Research Questionnaire and the guiding question that triggers the investigation for the Conversation Circle: "How is the Pedagogical Advisor constituted in the Municipal Network, considering the knowledge and actions of their profession?"

From that moment on, we envisioned that the Conversation Circle would go beyond an academic methodological tool, but also a qualitative-formative movement, providing voice and time, space and time, recognizing the importance of the moment of speaking and listening, as well as points of encounters and disagreements, of notes and reflections on our experiences and how we see ourselves in the daily process of Pedagogical Guidance. Thus, we considered the knowledge and actions of these professionals, the possibilities and complexities of the field being researched, in order to provoke a dialogical-reflective movement among the participating professionals, to deepen and contemplate the bonds formed from us (Pedagogical Guidance Counselors), constituted even with the tightness of daily life, as links, which unite and project steps and looks towards other panoramas.

It was understood that the Conversation Circle made a relevant and significant contribution in the sense that it gave the participants space, time, a voice and a chance to exchange experiences, share knowledge and move towards collectivity, built on interaction with others, complementing, agreeing or disagreeing, talking in depth and reflectively, thoughtfully and shared, recognizing the participants as potential narrators:

The fact is that they don't narrate alone, they reproduce the voices, discourses and memories of other people, which are associated with their own in the process of recollection and socialization, and narrative discourse, in the case of the conversation circle, is a collective construction

(^{Moura; Lima, 2014}, p. 100).

In the context of data production, it is understood that cultural and individual memories are closely linked. Collecting and processing accounts, life stories, sharing, exchanging and talking "is not about collecting different objects or behaviors, but rather participating in the development of a memory that wants to be transmitted based on a researcher's demand," in addition to transmission, it is a construction in which the researcher himself participates (^{Santamarina; Marinas, 1995}, p. 273).

Conversation, in this sense, means understanding in depth, reflecting, pondering and sharing, according to ^{Warschauer (2001, p. 179)} and, furthermore, not only develops the ability to argue logically, but also the skills of relationships, emotions and interlocutions provided for in the movement of conversation: respect, knowing how to listen, knowing how to speak, waiting one's turn, inserting oneself into the fabric of the circle, facing up to differences, striving to hear the other's point of view.

Discussion

The Conversation Circle, which concludes the methodological path of the research and begins the process of deepening the data, contributes to and enables a dialogical, meaningful movement, full of reflection and emotion, gives participants a voice, deepens the data and information built up in this circular movement, with direct access and mobility in this virtual, horizontal, eye-to-eye, face-to-face space, looks at the individual, but also, and above all, at the collective.

The conversation in the circle provides a moment of listening and becomes a possible, unique and plural methodological tool for sharing, addressing various issues about the network: conceptions, the identity of the position, the work (duties and functions) as well as the knowledge (knowledge and training) that touches on the daily routine of Pedagogical Guidance.

As the circle flowed in conversation, in voices and at times, historical moments and facts were recalled, recalling stages, experiences and experiences that marked the beginning of the creation of the position in the network and the profession itself, highlighting how collaborative work contributes to the process of professional insertion and improvement of the knowledge and actions of Pedagogical Guidance, so that the reports and narratives generated, constructed and reconstructed in the collective of the Conversation Circle, highlight significant episodes and bring us closer to the intended answers.

After the end of the Conversation Circle, we began transcribing and organizing the narratives, revisiting the entire meeting and the movement generated in the round and in the conversation, a long, careful, attentive and meticulous work. We are (were) invaded by the emotion of the narratives, of the various episodes reflected on, overflowing and recalling moments lived in a similar way, experiences, with marks and milestones of the profession, complex, tense, emotional and nourished in this organization and selection of powerful, meaningful, reflective and collective transcripts, later compared to the documentary analysis and the data from the Questionnaire.

In this revisiting, we organized each speech and each narrative, reading each gesture/gesture, each glance (glances), which allowed for new and others, which are often not perceived at the moment, the technological advantages at this time, reiterate how much digital tools tend to enhance methodological paths in the field of research.

The Conversation Circles allows us to come across the development of other readings, in a process of diving and immersion for the treatment of data, it impacts us by the power of qualitative research, by the relations with the productions of the human, which contributes to the strengthening of the place of speech, promoter of the unpublished, the viable, singular and plural experiences, with name, surname and authorship.

The human and intense relationship with the research makes certain demands: a pause so that reading, listening, viewing the images and scenes can continue, so that data processing, analysis and reflection can be carried out, disregarding the momentary personal lens, moving away from the place of speech, reconfiguring the reading, resuming the position, the researcher's gaze and a certain emotional detachment.

Conclusions

As a methodological tool in the field of qualitative research in education, the Conversation Circle, combined with other digital and technological devices, promotes facilitating movements that transcend time and space. It was observed that, even online and remotely, the Conversation Circle maintains the human essence of qualitative research in Education, providing us with a moment to meet other(s), contributing to the strengthening of actions, to the appropriation of the knowledge necessary for the field being researched, to the creation of bonds, to the strengthening of communication and dialogue, and to the exchanges that are so favorable to the Pedagogical Advisor's knowledge and actions in everyday school life.

The Conversation Circle had an impact on us, signaling the importance of collaborative and collective work, as a formative movement that corroborates professional improvement and enhancement. We observed from the Pedagogical Advisors' narratives how spaces for continuing education are essential and promote public expression, both internally and externally in the profession, in the same way as narratives, which are so necessary for each and every person's inscription in the function, in the position, in the profession and in society, as ^{Nóvoa and Vieira (2017)} inspire us.

In the course of this research, the Round Table became an instrument for promoting exchanges, providing meaningful discussions, and encouraging professionals to analyze, reflect on and raise active, participatory (and why not creative?) possibilities in the search for transformations that accompany the needs and complexities of everyday life in the countryside. In this respect, in an immersion movement, which proved to be truly significant and necessary, just as much as the need for investment and efforts for continuing training actions of this kind, a reflective context was revealed about the field, about the complex and possible knots of everyday life and about "WE".

While the literature shows us the importance of the 'search for self' and teacher well-being (^{Nóvoa; Vieira, 2007}), we also highlight this need with the Conversation Circle, since it revealed aspects that foster the professional development of the professionals surveyed here, encouraging the search, exchange and affirmation of identity, permeating the paths of a consistent and broad continuing education process, integrating the "I's" (singular) with the "WE's" (plural) and distancing themselves from individualized and fragmented behaviors, actions and stories.

Immersed in moments of formative-pedagogical expansion, provided and constituted in the Conversation Circle, a moment in which the research subjects have their say, this can be seen as a methodological tool of potential, promoting a non-hierarchical dialogical space, shared continuing education and empowerment among professionals. Likewise, it is a tool that strengthens individual and collective perceptions, conceived in the richness and beauty of the exchange of knowledge and experiential knowledge, of reflection on one's own constitution, allowing one to reveal one's own intentions and needs, of training (knowledge and actions) with one's peers, based on reality, on the locus of one's practice, in a space of mutual support and openness.

Impacted by the narrative of one of the participants, when we look at the Conversation Circle we come across a powerful methodological device, reiterating the need for continuous training, collective strengthening, professional constitution and action to meet the other(s). It should be noted that, as spaces for dialog and reflection are created, the Round Table becomes a methodological tool for producing and analyzing data, promoting a collective resonance, construction and reconstruction of concepts through attentive listening and dialog with peers and with oneself.

We believe that the Conversation Circle provided the opportunity for a voice, for other readings, for non-verbal languages, expressed and manifested in the faces and eyes that were moved and overwhelmed by such an encounter, where voices, feelings, anxieties, anxieties and challenges were shared and led to possibilities for this research, consisting of a participatory, formative, collective method, reflective and dialogical, a space for expression and listening, for socializing knowledge, experiences and experiences, built and rebuilt in the relationship with the other, and, consequently, that the habit of conversation is recovered with the help of digital devices and the "Conversation Circle" can reiterate possibilities of becoming a methodological-technological-formative-collective instrument for/in Research in Education.