Cirandas of knowledge, life stories, and teacher education

Abstract

This work is an excerpt from a master’s research project that aimed to investigate how the teacher education of the professors from Vila Compra Fiado, in Brejo Santo, Ceará, was constructed, taking as a basis their life stories and the knowledge acquired throughout their personal and professional trajectories. The study adopted a qualitative (auto)biographical approach and conducted thematic conversation circles, called Cirandas de Saberes Docentes, to guide the listening of the teachers’ narratives. The collected accounts supported the data analysis, the literary production of a collection of cordel poems, and the production of a documentary film of teacher narratives. The authors Freire (1967), Delory-Momberger (2006), Josso (2013), Passeggi (2011), Tardif (2014), Matias and Finger (2014), and Freire (2019) were used as references for this study. The research demonstrated that, through (auto)biographical narratives, it is possible to understand the influence of the rural environment, daily life, childhood, and community on the teachers’ educational paths and professional practice, as well as on the construction of each one’s identity.