Citizenship and the relation with knowledge in the teacher training curriculum: unveiling meanings of the educational practices

Abstract

The text Citizenship and the relation with knowledge in the teacher training curriculum: unveiling meanings of the educational practices shows part of the results from qualitative research carried out with ten teachers of a public university on the citizenship concept, particularly, in the context of their educational practices developed in a teacher training curriculum of teachers formation. The text proposes a debate on the concept of citizenship, including the main views on the subject available in the Brazilian literature, citizenship of restricted rights and citizenship as social construction, and on the concept of relation with knowledge. The relation with knowledge as a creative process unfolds in the relation of the student with him/herself with the others, with rules and power. A curriculum guided by the perspective of citizenship formation as a social construction makes it possible for the students to develop a new relation with knowledge that is non-dogmatic, therefore, critical, reflective, participative, interdisciplinary, based on an atmosphere of mutual respect and of partnership in the construction of the knowledge, attitudes and values. The discussion of the results of the research showed that in the educational practices, expressed by the participant teachers, the space to exercise a relation with knowledge that can lead to the construction of knowledge, the deepening of the relationship with him/herself, with the others and the rules and the citizenship formation as social construction is limited. It also showed that there is the predominance of views concerning citizenship development, mainly, intellectual and cognitive, centered on the “duty to be”.

Keywords: curriculum, teacher training, citizenship, relation with knowledge.