Necessidades formativas de professores de língua portuguesa

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the training needs of Portuguese language teachers in a state school located in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, analyzing the challenges faced in teaching and their implications for the development of pedagogical practices. This is a qualitative, exploratory study conducted with eight teachers working in the final years of elementary school and in high school, through the application of a questionnaire and individual semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using Prose Analysis (André, 1983). The results reveal that initial teacher training is perceived by teachers as insufficient to address the real demands of the classroom, highlighting a persistent gap between the theoretical frameworks of the undergraduate teaching degree and the concrete demands of pedagogical practice. Regarding the demands of contemporary teaching, difficulties in incorporating active methodologies, multiliteracies, and digital technologies stand out, associated both with the absence of contextualized continuing education and the structural limitations of schools. Assessment emerges as a tense dimension, in which teachers demonstrate interest in formative practices but face institutional pressures of a bureaucratic and classificatory nature. Working conditions are a structuring factor in formative needs, with recurring reports of overload, multiple employment relationships, scarcity of time for collective planning, and feelings of professional isolation. Furthermore, reflection and research appear as latent needs, indicating the teachers' desire to recognize themselves as producers of knowledge, even though they encounter institutional obstacles to the consolidation of investigative practices in daily school life. Finally, digital literacy stands out as an emerging demand, especially in the face of the challenge of training students capable of critically dealing with the circulation of information and misinformation in digital environments. As an educational product, Teaching Cases were developed based on the participants' narratives, conceived as formative devices aimed at problematizing real dilemmas in teaching and promoting reflective and collaborative processes. It is concluded that the identified training needs are not limited to individual deficiencies, but rather reflect institutional, political, and structural constraints, reinforcing the importance of continuing education policies situated within the school context and guided by listening to teachers' experiences.