Percursos de identidade do professor de Matemática em início de carreira: O contributo da formação inicial

Abstract

In this paper I intend to study the impact of teacher education in the construction of the professional identity of two beginning mathematics teacher, teaching in different elementary and secondary schools in their first three years. The methodology adopted in this research follows the interpretative paradigm having the case study as its major design. The case studies concerning these beginning teachers have been constructed mainly based in the analysis of a set of interviews with biographical character realized in the course of three consecutive school years.

The first part concerning the results, presents the beginning teachers’ case studies, and explains their career motivations and perspectives about teacher education. The second part describes the professional identity dymanics for each beginning teacher and its relation with their teacher education program.

This study allows one to conclude that identity is an idiosyncratic, complex and multidimensional process, and highlights the importance of biography in the construction of teacher’s professional identity. Being submitted to the same teacher education program, these teachers have, nevertheless, developed distinct professional identities. This results, in part, from the fact that their interpret and experiment these program in different ways according to their personal trajectories. In addition, this study shows that teacher education might interpellate some student teachers in meaningful ways. Finally, I point some necessary conditions to teacher education that are related to the construction of teacher professional identity.