Teacher education and consumption: A necessary debate

Abstract

The paper aims to discuss the production of social identities of contemporary children and young people in connection with the processes of teacher education nowadays, mainly those working in elementary education. Based on theoretical analysts of contemporary culture, especially Zygmunt Bauman, the text begins with a more general discussion about contemporary culture which is marked by redefi ning our lifestyles, due to the centrality that the different technological artifacts with microelectronics basis have in our daily life, it treats about the issue of consumption in this context and follows with a very brief ethnographic description,
guided by the anthropological maxim of doing exotic the familiar and familiar the exotic. Such an ethnographic description works as a theme to carry forward the discussion that argues for an urgent review in the curricula of our teacher education courses for elementary education. The analytical exercise demonstrates the operation of a borderless curriculum, the publicity curriculum, committed to produce contemporary children and young people, regardless of the
markers of class, ethnicity, gender and nationality.