Self-training in higher education: the experience of the pedagogy course in the high Sertão of Paraíba

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to foster in the academic field the debate about teachers' self-training. We have a double objective: first, to elucidate the historical reasons why this theme is almost non-existent in the Brazilian teaching culture. To do so, we will take a retrospective look at the development of the Brazilian people's schooling process, because it was these experiences that historically produced the psychism that is manifested in today's teaching culture; second, to present self-training as a fundamental dimension of teacher training. Structured on the basis of bibliographic and empirical data, the study presents itself as a contextualized approach to the theme. We used the productions registered in the Capes Theses and Dissertations Catalog to identify the existence or absence of research on self-training, as well as data from the consolidated experience of elaboration of Projects for Teachers' Self-Training in Higher Education, precisely in a Pedagogy course in the Alto “Sertão” of Paraíba. The examination of the identified academic productions showed a tiny volume of research on self-training (0.20%), revealing that this dimension of teacher training is being neglected in academic practices and curricula. It is urgent, therefore, to broaden the debate around the subject in order to favor the renewal of pedagogical thinking, the construction of a new mentality of valuing knowledge as a device capable of boosting human development in its multiple dimensions: biological, social, cognitive, affective, spiritual, and cultural.