REPERCUSSIONS OF CONTINUING EDUCATION ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE IDENTITY OF TEACHERS IN ATENDIMENTO EDUCACIONAL ESPECIALIZADO

Abstract

This article is an excerpt from a doctoral research conducted within the Graduate Program in Education at the Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE). It aims to analyze how continuing education influences the constitution of the professional identity of teachers working in Atendimento Educacional Especializado (AEE). The theoretical-methodological framework is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism and in Antonio da Costa Ciampa’s theory of identity, which conceives identity as a historical process marked by the movement of identity–metamorphosis–emancipation. Data production occurred through reflective interviews conducted with four AEE teachers from the municipal education system of Fortaleza, Brazil, and the analysis was carried out using the method of nuclei of meaning. The results indicate that the training processes offered present weaknesses related to discontinuity, theoretical impoverishment, and a focus on massified and instrumentalized models, which tend to weaken emancipatory movements and the construction of teachers’ political identity. Nevertheless, the narratives also reveal movements of resistance, in which access to theoretical knowledge emerges as an important element for professional strengthening and identity construction. It is concluded that continuing education, when theoretically grounded and developed in a dialogical and continuous manner, can become a privileged space for the emancipation of teachers’ identities and for strengthening the inclusive perspective.