Reflexões na formação continuada de professores de língua inglesa: letramento crítico e ambientes virtuais

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the implications of a continuing education course for English teachers which was designed to develop critical teaching-learning practices on virtual environment or with the aid of such a feature. In this journey, the theoretical basis for this research were Critical Digital Literacies (SAITO; SOUZA, 2011) and Critical Literacy (LANKSHEAR; KNOBEL, 1998; DUBOC, 2012; JORDÃO, 2013) as well as the reflections on pedagogical use of tecnological resources (SILVA, 2012; BRAGA, 2013). This research is inserted into the field of Applied Linguistics (RAJAGOPALAN, 2008; STELLA; CRUZ, 2014) and its participants were nine English language teachers from the public school system of the Brazilian state of Alagoas who attended a blended continuing education course which occurred between October 2014 and April 2015. The main references considered on continuing education and initial formation of teachers were Ifa (2006), Silva (2012), Santos e Ifa (2013), Maciel (2014) e Tavares e Stella (2014). The methodology used was action research, with theory grounds by Thiollent (2012) and Zozzoli (2006). Data was collected through questionnaires, lesson plans, interviews, virtual environments (Moodle and Facebook) and field diaries. My research questions were: a) Is it possible to develop critical practices of English language teaching-learning on virtual environment or with the aid of such a feature? If so, how? b) How does the dialogue between the discussions held throughout the continuing education and the participants‟pedagogical practices? Through the analyses, it was detected a recurrence of the theme Challenges, detailed in three sub-themes: institucional challenge, social challenge and pedagogical challenge. The results showed that the challenges identified were faced up and that the participants went beyond the initial aim of the continuing education course, which focused on virtual environment, developing critical teaching-learning practices in different perspectives: using the textbook and/or the textbook with discussions on blog or even transiting between the textbook and Facebook.