Knowledge of educational practice revealed by a master shipwright during his work as a teacher-trainer

Abstract

In the city of São Luís, the capital of the State of Maranhão, Brazil. The Technological Vocational Center Shipyard School was opened in 2006. Its purpose is to train master shipwrights, who possess knowledge derived from experience, to become doctors who teach the stages and construction techniques of a craft vessel within a vocational school. This article sought to answer the following guiding question: how can we recognize a master shipwright as a teacher-trainer of the technical course for the construction of craft vessels from Maranhão within the Shipyard School? To this end, it aimed to identify knowledge from educational practice revealed during the teaching activities of a master shipwright and which allow us to recognize him as a teacher-trainer. This study followed the theoretical-methodological assumptions of narrative research, anchored in Dorothy Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly. The field texts were composed using records made during the course on the construction of handcraft made boats in Maranhão, taught by a master shipwright, and a narrative interview with him. With the research data, it was possible to identify that the master shipwright has extensive knowledge about the world of shipwrighting; he has developed practical knowledge based on his daily experiences with his former masters, students and other teachers; and he has a conception of how to teach and a methodological order to transmit his knowledge. This knowledge was therefore categorized into knowledge of the craft, knowledge from experience and knowledge from pedagogical tradition.