Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: Albino Guirrengane Nhaposse

THE SPACE OF THE HUMANITIES IN INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION IN MOZAMBIQUE

Human formation; Humanities; Teacher training.

The figure of the teacher has always been essential in human history. Nowadays, national education systems are very concerned about the training of teachers, as they are considered the guardians of values to be passed on and appropriated by new generations. With the advent of neoliberalism, which imposes on societies, through their governments, a logic based on market values such as competitiveness, immediacy, utilitarianism and profitability, this trend has also had an impact on education systems. Teacher training programs have been lightened, making them merely technical, instrumentalist and immediate, and relegating broader initial training, which brings together professional and human training, as a necessary symbiosis to face the complexities of contemporaneity. Given this context of initial teacher training, we ask ourselves: What is the role of the humanities in the initial training of elementary school teachers in Mozambique? To this end, we will pursue the following specific objectives: Explain the international trend around the conception of teacher training for primary education; Describe the objective, organization, structure and pedagogical conception of initial teacher training for primary education in Mozambique; Understand the current role of higher education institutions in initial teacher training for primary education; To discuss the importance of elementary school teacher training taking place in higher education, considering space for a broader training that combines technical training with human formation, based on reflection on the current model of initial training for elementary school teachers in Mozambique, called “12th grade + 3 years”, which focuses on training for the didactic application of the contents of elementary school subjects, from 1st to 6th grade (1st to 6th grade of elementary school in Brazil), oriented towards the development of only technical skills. In defense of broader initial teacher training, which includes not only technical preparation for teaching content, but also human experience that develops critical thinking and the dignity of the teacher's social status, we advocate the need for teacher training at a higher level. This research is anchored mainly in the theoretical basis of Martha Nussbaum, who defends the importance of the humanities in educational curricula for broadening the horizons of students, that is, for the development of critical thinking, universal citizenship and narrative imagination. This research is methodologically based on philosophical hermeneutics, focusing on broadening the understanding and interpretation of different educational realities in a more reflective and contextualized way. Starting from the international context of education and teacher training as a corollary of neoliberal logic, the discussion addresses higher teacher training, the importance of the humanities and the diagnosis of initial teacher training in Mozambique. We will also conduct interviews with managers from the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) - the National Directorate for Teacher Training - and questionnaires with university teachers from the faculties of education at the Pedagogical University of Maputo, Licungo University, Rovuma University, Save University and Púnguè University in order to find out their perceptions and experiences of the teacher training process.