Formação Inicial de Professores e Educação Não Formal: o que dizem os Projetos Pedagógicos de Cursos de Ciências Biológicas do Estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The sciences, as well as the teaching of science, have had their relevance and role in society questioned as of late. Given that science is not isolated from everyday social, technological and environmental matters, its fields should not be restricted to academic spheres. In this regard, non-formal education has great potential to foster spaces that are conducive to teaching science. This dissertation aims to investigate how non-formal education has been employed in the educational projects of teaching degree undergraduate courses in the Biological sciences of public institutions in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This is a quantitative and qualitative research, following a documentary and exploratory methodology based on the educational projects of the aforementioned courses. Thus, at first, a general quantitative approach was utilized to investigate 124 teaching degree undergraduate courses in the fields of Natural Sciences and Mathematics offered in the state of Minas Gerais. Then secondly, in particular, the qualitative approach was employed following the theoretical construct of Content Analysis in order to organize and sort the Biological sciences educational projects. In our results, we noticed an initiative — albeit slow, still positive — of including the topic of non-formal education in the educational projects of these teaching degree undergraduate courses in recent years. This inclusion, however, is still commonly associated with specific contexts: as a possible career path for future teachers; regarding the issue of environmental education; in field activities; and in classes that address literacy and science education, highlighting common points between these topics. The research presents a contribution to the issue of (re)thinking how non-formal education could be further utilized in initial teacher education in the Biological sciences.