Educação científica intercultural: mediações de saberes tradicionais e acadêmicos na formação inicial de professores

Abstract

This study analyzed the process of mediation of traditional knowledge and academic knowledge related to medicinal plants among a group of teachers in initial education and raizeiras of quilombola communities from the municipalities of São Mateus and Conceição da Barra, in the north of the Espírito Santo State. We defend the thesis that mediations of traditional and academic knowledge can contribute to problematize rationalities present in initial teacher education courses, as mistaken views on the nature of scientific knowledge, favoring an Cross-Cultural Science Education. We base ourselves on the concept of mediation discussed by Foerste (2013), Ciavatta (2013) and Martins (2018). As a methodological approach, we were inspired by participatory research, using data production instruments such as field diary records; audio recordings of classes and semi-structured interviews; photographs; questionnaires and texts written by teachers in initial education. We based data analysis on the Bakhtinian view of language and the cultural perspective of Aikenhead Science Education (2000). The study was developed in five main stages, in which the research was also used as a didactic instrument for the collective construction of knowledge, which, in this work, culminated in the creation of Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Mediation Units. The results show that collective research processes approaching different knowledges, in the context of initial teacher education, promote intercultural dialogues, which enable the confrontation of mistaken views about scientific thinking, as well as structural issues of this formative stage, such as changing the representation of traditional roles of teacher and student, the organization of times and spaces, as well as teaching practice based on technical assumptions. Thus, we began to prioritize the processes of creation and intellectual autonomy of teachers in initial education, composing new ways of teaching and learning, integrating, at this stage, teaching, research and extension. By prioritizing the dialogical interactions between traditional and academic knowledge, we show that what is researched in Education is as important as how it is researched. We conclude by underlining the need to insert the theoretical assumptions of Cross-Cultural Science Education in the initial education of teachers, as a different way of promoting other rationalities, in dialogue with local contexts, generating changes in teaching and student practices.