Labor trajectories of Basic/Elementary teachers’ education: a study of the conditions of work and nature of professional activities from graduates of teacher training courses in the United States of America

• Grant number: 15/09631-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 16, 2015
• End date: April 15, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Claudia Barcelos de Moura Abreu
• Grantee: Claudia Barcelos de Moura Abreu
• Host Investigator: Judith Warren Little
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the labor trajectories of graduates from teacher training courses for basic education in the United States - Elementary school. The study will consist of two stages; the first data collection is about the working conditions to which graduates of teacher training courses are subject; the second step will be about the nature of the work in the different activities performed by graduates in the labor market. To the period from June 2015, data from the two stages of the research will be collected in Brazil. Then - from August 2015 and as part of post-doctoral training activities to be held at the University of California - data will be collected in the United States, with participants to be defined by the working group coordinated by Prof. Drª Judith Little. The aim of the study is to understand to what extent the working conditions and the mobilization of scientific knowledge acquired in the initial training process structure the working life, highlighting the dynamics that underlie the working conditions in the different posts and spheres ( State, private or non-governmental organizations) and the demands of knowledge requested by labor activity. The study also seeks to understand to what extent the employment trajectories developed in different countries have specific and similarities and how these characteristics can help in the research object of investigation. It is fundamental to establish the categories of analysis of the collected data, the contributions from the field of education and work, considering that the observed changes in the labor market in recent decades have impacted working conditions and generated new demands for training to workers in all sectors of the economy, obviously with different effects when targeted sectors and labor activities. Moreover, it is taken Dejours ideas (1993), which argues the need to seek a more complex view of the job, and as activity, and claims to be necessary to review the position for which workers line up " automatically "to the standards and the requirements arising from the economic and social structure. To develop research, reiterates the use of qualitative methodological procedures in data collection. For the first stage of the research on the types and working conditions survey will be used and, after the organization of the data collected, the criteria for the selection of the sample will be listed, non-probabilistic, with characteristic "heterogeneous totality", able to ensure the selection of representative from each group. Thus, the data from second stage of the research will be collected through interviews and construction of a field instrument, sketchbook, in which research subjects will note the activities developed throughout his workday, aimed the analyze the demands knowledge posed by labor activity and the links between different forms of knowledge. It is hoped that this research contribute to the field of education and work, specifically with regard to the work of graduates of teacher training courses in the both countries. (AU)