Teachers' knowledge under the lens of dialectical historical materialism

critical review of the theoretical and methodological foundations from a comparative study

Abstract

This article aims to discuss theoretically and empirically a theme that has become the recurrent in academic research focused on the initial and continuous formation of teachers and studies on work and teachers' professionalization. The term " teachers' knowledge "has been widely adopted in official texts that deals with programs and (re) qualification of basic education teachers, with few questions about theoretical assumptions and on the political-pedagogical implications inherent in the of context of emergence and penetration of this concept in the field of teaching and teacher education. Taking as its starting point a study performed with 48 literacy teachers of the Municipal Net of Rio de Janeiro and critical dialogue with the main reference and propagator of that term in Brazil, Maurice Tardif, we challenged some of the assertions called "epistemology practice "that became consensual in political and academic discourses, especially those that link the knowledge of experience as a structural core of teaching practice. Our analysis referenced in the dialectical historical materialism also identifies some theoretical and methodological inconsistencies of the studies of teachers' knowledge and proposes an approach which, without denying the possible contributions this study line, focus on the dimension of the teaching profession and educational praxis in its relationship with the social totality in its many aspects, dialectical and contradictory.