A entrada na carreira docente: o que dizem as narrativas de professores de ciências e biologia

Abstract

The beginning of the teaching career has peculiar and important characteristics to the teacher’s consolidation in the profession. It is a stage of the professional development that can evoke diverse feelings and motivate the teacher to make various decisions according to the situations experienced in the teaching. Amongst the facets of survival and discovery experienced by the beginning teachers, many of them give up, however many stay on. Taking that into account, this research aimed to understand how the Biology and Science teachers perceive the beginning of the teaching career. In order to deepen the understanding of the perceptions, five objectives were proposed — i) identify how the profession choice was done; ii) identify the teachers’ motivation for going into teaching; iii) identify the main challenges faced and the knowledge built by the teachers on the beginning of their careers; and iv) to list the chief conditions that either limit or stimulate the permanence in the teaching. The data collection method was a semi-structured interview done with five in-service state public schools teachers, that have no more than three years of teaching work, in São Carlos city — SP state. The data analysis was based on the interviews content that allowed, according to the literature, the construction of four categories: 1) Conscious or unconscious choice of the teaching profession; 2) Entry into the career; 3) Professional development; and 4) Condition and appreciation of the teaching work. The production of the teachers’ narratives was based on the interviews, considering the theoretical references, and the categories constructed and supported by the temporality axis. The data corroborated the literature assertion that the beginning of the teaching career is a phase of tensions and intensive learning. Therefore, it can be concluded that teaching is not always a clear and spontaneous teacher’s choice and the entrance into the profession can be motivated by other features such as possibility of a stable job, lack of option, evidence of personal and professional characteristics that show an identification with the teaching, and the construction of the desire to be a teacher throughout the life trajectory. On that career phase, the teachers face various difficulties in the personal, professional and institutional spheres. To most beginning teachers, the knowledge of the vocational training are far from the practical knowledge, being the latter preponderant on the Biology and Science teaching praxis. In this respect, the professional knowledge takes longer to be built by the teachers. Lastly, among the reasons for the permanence on the teaching career, the teachers found stability on the job and developed affective bonds to the students. However, the faced conditions not always make the teachers to consolidate their careers, and in consequence, they quit the profession.