Memory(ies), dialog and research: Learning and teaching didactics

Abstract

Since 1982, when the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro held the seminar “Didactics at Stake,” the field of Didactics in Brazil has experienced a wide movement of revision, reconstruction and development, having the National Meetings on Didactics and Teaching Practice as its main focus of reference. This paper intends to offer some ideas about the process itself and present questions that we consider pivotal for the field of Didactics in the coming years. In the first part, we discuss how professors of Didactics who have a sound academic production and are recognized by their peers have characterized the development of Didactics since the 1980s. The second part focuses on a fundamental question not only for Didactics today, but also for Pedagogy in general: the role of cultural differences in social and educational processes. The conclusion argues that the cultural dimension is intrinsic to the educational processes and potentiates learning experiences which are significant and productive for the subjects involved.

Keywords: didactics, school learning, cultural differences, teacher training.