Contribuições da didática numa perspectiva freiriana na formação de futuros professores de química

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the adoption of dialogical practices that surpass the still prev-alent banking education in higher education chemistry, moving towards a Freirean perspective. To this end, we utilised eight principles of Paulo Freire's political and pedagogical thought: emancipation, freedom, dialogicity, singularity, epistemological curiosity, criticality, autonomy, and creativity, which were systematised and theorised based on Paulo Freire's works: Peda-gogy of the Oppressed, Education as a Practice of Freedom, and Pedagogy of Autonomy. Anchoring our approach on these eight principles, we planned the general didactics course offered to the chemistry teacher training programme at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in 2025.1. Our methodology is characterised as qualitative, being an intervention research that included the researcher acting as an educator within the course. The research involved 17 higher education students from various teacher training courses: eight in chemis-try, four in philosophy, two in mathematics, one in music, and two in physics. Data collection instruments included participant observation, 126 reflective journals, and a questionnaire on the principles. Data analysis was conducted through Bardin’s content analysis. For the analy-sis, all journals were considered; for the questionnaire, only the responses from the chemistry teacher training students were taken into account. The results showed that the eight principles were essential in overcoming banking education, both because they were used in planning, studied by the students during the course, and experienced in practice. The importance of planning and varied methodologies that enable collective construction of learning was also emphasised. We found that the principles facilitated the overcoming of banking education in more aspects than they did not, although challenges related to the institutional curriculum structure and the deep-rooted nature of banking education remain, which is still present, some-times intrinsically, even when efforts are made to surpass it. The practice developed was, above all, dialogical. Although the emancipation principle was not frequently mentioned in the reports, it must be understood that it is permeated by the other principles. Emancipation only occurs when there is dialogicity, understood as communication, not as knowledge transmis-sion. This dialogicity leads to dialogue as an encounter between subjects. There is no dialogi-city without freedom. Freedom is central to fostering the other principles, as it enables partici-pation, expression, and positioning. The initial hypothesis, that the logic of banking education, which still permeates higher education chemistry teaching, can be overcome if educators adopt the principles of Paulo Freire’s political and pedagogical thought, was supported, as these principles enable an emancipatory, liberating, and dialogical education.