Teacher education and the theories of teacher knowledge: contexts, doubts, and challenges

Abstract

The purpose of the present text is to investigate how the studies related to teacher knowledge were received within the field of teacher education in Brazil. The main issue here is to understand a bit further, from a dialogue with literature and recent studies, how the scholars of teacher education have perceived the arrival of these new ways of seeing, appreciating and investigating the work of the teacher. The text points out the lack of consensus among the authors selected for the study, and that their arguments can be seen in the context of enunciations that underlie the discussions within the field of teacher education. Such statements exhibit at least three dimensions: epistemological, political, and professional. The first refers to the controversies around the issue of the constitution of the concept of reflective teacher and its philosophical foundations. The second is related to the political meanings and unfolding of the statements. The third dimension is expressed in their potential consequences for the teaching profession. The article concludes by indicating the need to pay attention to three issues in the debates about teacher knowledge and education in Brazil: the risk of, contradictorily, producing an even more alienated teacher; the problem of the quality of the debate in the educational field and, lastly, the importance of establishing a better relationship between the national theoretical tradition and the international literature.