Theory and practice in the education undergraduate course

Abstract

This study discusses the complex relationship between theory and practice in the Education undergraduate course, from the view of primordial educators. The research has turned to a group of seventeen educators who witnessed the early days of the implementation of the Education course in Brazil as undergraduate students, and who excelled in the academic field of education as benchmarks for training and research. Two objectives have guided the study: to research on the features of the beginning of the course and on the changes it has gone through, to analyze the implications, resistances and advances in its history and its importance in the academic field; and to obtain from the participants their position on Education as a knowledge field and as a course to interpret their position in the context of the Brazilian educational field. The main theoretical dialogues were conducted with Saviani (2007) and Houssaye (2004). Methodologically, we worked with analysis of testimonials, collected through semi-structured interviews. The investigation revealed aspects that evidence how the Education course was constructed among us and the conflictive but important position which it occupies in the academic space of education. This article presents a partial analysis of these data, specifically addressing the historic clash between theory and practice in education courses in their early days and today, through the curriculum guidelines of 2006.