Longe da escola, na escola: os significados do PROCAP na construção dos saberes e na prática dos professores

Abstract

In this work we analyzed the meaning of the PROCAP (Programa de Capacitação de Professores) for the process of continuous formation and for the teaching practice in Mathematics of the teachers working in the initial school years in Uberlândia-MG. PROCAP had as goal to act on the continuous formation of teachers working in the city and state schools of Minas Gerais state. It is part of a larger program, PROQUALIDADE (Project of Quality improvement of the Fundamental Teaching - 1st to 4th series) through an agreement between the Government of the State of Minas Gerais and the World Bank in the year of 1995. The implementation of PROCAP was carried out in two different phases. The first involved the areas of Reflection on Pedagogic Practice, Mathematics and Portuguese Language, being implemented in the years of 1997 and 1998. The second phase of PROCAP, entitled PROCAP - Fase Escola Sagarana , was implemented in 2001, involving the areas of Foundations of the Pedagogic Practice, Geography, History and Sciences. The program, in its first implementation phase, qualified 81572 teachers through a training process in the schools, by means of a formation strategy in service, being used the modality of distance education, incorporating the use of printed materials and videos, especially produced for the Program. In order to obtain data we carried out a qualitative research in four schools of Uberlândia-MG, having as a methodological procedure the use of a questionnaire and four group interviews. Data demonstrate that the teachers evaluate the experience of continuous formation through PROCAP as positive for their pedagogic practice, however, pointing out that the program was not enough to change the teacher's practice, what demands a very larger investment in the school, work conditions, professional valorization and in the process of the teacher's formation as a whole. Regarding the teaching of the mathematics, data evidenced that the teachers evaluate that the repercussions of PROCAP can be noticed in their practice, but are insufficient for a deeper domain of the mathematical contents and of a significant understanding of appropriate methodologies for the development of the students' mathematical reasoning. The teachers expressed the need of a program that is continuous and elaborated starting from their formative needs, as well as of the reality of their work context. The present study shows the need to think for more concrete and significant forms of investing in the continuity of the teacher's formative process as a challenge for the construction of teaching quality and of a school committed to the citizens' formation, and contemporary subjects.