CHALLENGES FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This article examines some of the challenges that are set for the training of teachers in Brazilian public universities, aiming, among others, the movement to expand the supply of undergraduate education promoted under the REUNI (Program to Support Restructuring and Expansion of Federal Universities) and the National Curricular Guidelines for Teacher Training for Basic Education in undergraduate courses, in addition to the appeals of distance education, which is gradually being established. It is known that the teaching training courses historically occupied a secondary place in relation to university bachelor degrees at the university context and that, given the demands of the contemporary school, they need, in an expressive and recurrent way, the redefinition of their political and teaching outlines to reorient thinking and doing in initial and continuing teacher training. Despite the clear demands in regard to teacher training courses, there are the risks of reckless expansion of educational opportunities, to be carried out hastily; threats of strangulation of the curriculum, resulting from the improper appropriation of the Curriculum Guidelines and, finally, the risk of impoverishment and the alleviation of such training in the wake of the incorporation of distance learning. Thus, it is essential that these challenges are revealed, for their critical analysis will give place to alternatives in favor of teacher training.

Key words: Teacher training; Challenges; Expansion; Public universities.