The tracks of writing mediating learning experiences in the continued education of literacy teachers in a countryside school

Abstract

In Brazil, universities have an important role in developing In Service Teacher Education Programs, due to the very low rates of achievement in the school system, particularly in the countryside and in poor districts of urban areas. This text shows part of an empirical research project on continued education developed by university researchers with literacy teachers of a countryside school located in the southwest of the State of  Paraná, Brazil. The training was held through written records by the teachers and it was connected to their culture. The experience and its analysis were based on the enunciative and social-historical theory of language and on the view of writing as a production activity. Taken as an instrument and object of research, the literacy teachers’ writing encouraged the transformation of conceptions and practices of literacy, showing a potential to produce autonomy and to involve them in the constitution of knowledge on pedagogical practice. The study revealed he importance of writing for the improvement of their teaching practices, the development of strategies to overcome learning diffi culties in literacy education and the understanding of the social and political aspects of pedagogical practice.

Key words: teacher training, writing, literacy, culture.