Stages in Chemistry Education: Towards a Humanized Training and in Opposition to Contemporary (Counter)Reforms

Abstract

To align or oppose something implies taking a position. As Freire (2016) inspires us, there is no neutral stance; even in the lack of explicit opinion, there is a choice/adherence to a perspective. This motif structures and organizes the writing of this text, almost like an "Ariadne’s Thread" that guides us through the path we tread in the attempt to exit the labyrinth. Meanwhile, the Internship is understood as a prolific field within the area of teacher education in Chemistry, constituted by learnings, knowledge, and practices, catalyzed by the school environment. It is an approach to Chemical Education immersed in the school environment, in the context that marks its genesis. In this scenario, the labyrinth constituted by the normative documents in teacher education becomes less disorienting when guided by the thread materialized in our processes of creative insubordination, operationalized throughout our actions. In this context, a comprehensive exercise of the experiences developed in the time/space of the Internship in a Chemistry course from the Midwest region is communicated. These experiences can be seen as layers that constitute the weave of this thread that inspires and guides us through the often daunting and non-linear journey of Education, Chemistry Education, in contemporary times. At its core, it is intentional to "understand how internships have provided a space of (re)existence in the education of chemistry teachers." Similarly, it solidifies as a research question "What is it that is shown by the Internship, in the Chemistry course, as a space of (re)existence?" Assuming this complex and multifaceted scenario, the theoretical/methodological design of this comprehensive writing is organized into four dimensions, where our context is presented: the Chemistry Teaching degree, theoretical and methodological markers, the analysis through two movements, respectively called phenomenological and hermeneutic, and the considerations. From the path taken, it is understood that the territory of Internships has materialized as a field of (re)existence in teacher education courses, strengthening Chemical Education, and empowering the establishment of principles such as the inseparability of theory and practice, the articulation between university and school, and teacher formation.