Pedagogical coordinators and their beliefs

Abstract

Continued teacher education, based on the reflection on the practice that occurs in the school, is valued by authors such as Porto (2000), Santos (2002), Canário (2000), Pimenta (1998), Sacristán e Pérez Gómez (1998), with the argument that knowledge and reflective action must be contextualized, since the transformation of educational reality originates from the comparison between theory and practice. The article discusses who would be the professional responsible for the mediation of the teachers’ group and the articulation of the training moments. The pedagogical coordinator is considered to be the interlocutor of teacher education insofar as he/she provides reflection on practice and the overcoming of the contradictions between thinking and action. Placco’s work (1994; Placco et al., 1998, 2000; Placco and Almeida, 2001, 2003) sees the coordinator as the articulator of the consciousness of the political, human-relational and technical dimensions of the teachers’ actions. However, the revision of the pedagogical coordinator’s role implies the consideration of the coordinators’ beliefs, since their decisions are influenced by their beliefs, values, routines and representations. The explanation of the beliefs as a possibility of reorganizing the thinking and the awareness of actions (Sadalla, 1998; Krüger, 1993) is a condition for a more authentic and productive education.

Key words: continued education, pedagogical coordinator, teacher’s beliefs.