Ensinar geografia para a formação cidadã: potencialidade da formação continuada de professores

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of continuing professional development for Geography teachers aimed at citizenship education. The research problem stems from the mismatch between the recognition of citizenship education in educational documents and its actual implementation in teaching practice, as evidenced by the apparent lack of an intentional focus on articulating geographical knowledge with citizenship, as well as by conceptual weaknesses that constrain this approach. With the central objective of analyzing the contributions of a formative model focused on the intersection of Geography and citizenship, the study is grounded in Cultural-Historical Theory, Activity Theory, and Expansive Learning. Its central hypothesis argues that collaborative and reflective interventions focused on solving real problems bring about transformations in pedagogical mediation. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative, participatory approach, operationalized through a literature review, documentary analysis of curricular guidelines, and the development of a continuing professional development activity for in-service Geography teachers. This activity was designed based on contributions from the Change Laboratory methodology and interpreted through Discourse Analysis. The results revealed that teaching work is marked by profound structural contradictions, in which pressure to deliver quantitative results and excessive workload undermine teachers’ health and stifle their autonomy. The study nevertheless shows that when continuing professional development is structured as a dialogic and expansive learning space, individual complaints can be transformed into collective agency. Another contribution lies in the validation of active synthesis as a methodological tool capable of translating geographical knowledge into concrete actions of territorial intervention within the community and into the guided exercise of citizenship. It is concluded that establishing the school as a genuine space for citizenship education requires not only the development of teachers’ theoretical-conceptual thinking, but also the restructuring of their material working conditions, reaffirming the Geography teacher as an indispensable political and intellectual agent in the critical reading of the world.