The teacher education field: a study in papers of science education journals in Brazil

Abstract

We present here an analysis of papers on teacher education published in journals of the science teaching area in Brazil, covering the period of 1979 to 2007. The following journals taken part of this analysis: Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física, Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física, Ciência & Educação, Investigações em Ensino de Ciências, Ensaio: pesquisa em educação em ciências, Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências. In order to develop this research we took the textual analysis as a general methodology for collecting and analyzing data. For the systematization of information were highlighted words and phrases of the title, keywords and the summary presented in the papers. Systematized information shows that this theme has always been one of the focuses of research journals. The analysis undertaken allowed the delimitation of a corpus which is the starting point for a more extensive and detailed research on the field. As a first result we found 112 words, summarized in 6 categories (action, attributes, constitution, identity, profession and knowledge) which allowed a broad characterization of the science teacher’s education field in Brazil.