Teaching Residency Program for Preparing Future ProfessorsABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to analyze the characteristics, impact, and potential of the Teaching Residency Program (TRP) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) for the training of professors at the beginning of their careers. This was a qualitative study with a case study approach. Data were collected through a characterization questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with six TRP actors involved in the PRD. The study showed that the program is a place to reflect on the teaching and learning process, to (re)discover the school community and its characteristics, and to become a professor. It was found that it can also help early career professors in their training process and in the building their professional identity.
Keywords
Teacher Residency Program; Teacher Education; Beginning of a Teaching Career
RESUMO
Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar características, impactos e potencialidades do Programa de Residência Docente (PRD) da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) para a formação continuada de professores em início de carreira. Desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa qualitativa com abordagem de estudo de caso. A produção de dados resultou de um questionário de caracterização e de entrevistas semiestruturadas com seis atores envolvidos no PRD. Este estudo evidenciou que o Programa é um lugar para refletir sobre o processo de ensino e aprendizagem, (re)conhecer a comunidade escolar e suas características e tornar-se professor. Constatou-se que ele pode, ainda, auxiliar o professor em início de carreira em seu processo formativo e na construção de sua identidade profissional.
Palavras-chave
Programa de Residência Docente; Formação de Professores; Início de Carreira Docente
Introduction
Pre-training, initial training, induction, professional initiation, and ongoing and permanent training for professors are all stages that make up teacher education. These phases must be seen as significant and developing spaces that complement and intersect throughout the personal, social, professional, and academic career of the individual, from early childhood education to higher education. It is therefore understood that the process of training professors should take place throughout their lives (Freitas, 2002).
Various national and international researchers have debated and reflected on teacher training in an attempt to help teachers understand the process of professional development and how it is constructed in a continuum that extends throughout the teacher's professional life (Marcelo García, 1995). One of the debates surrounding teacher-training concerns the different stages, moments, phases of the professional development and career of the professor or, as Huberman (1995) calls it, the professional life cycle of the professor.
Among the stages envisaged by Huberman (1995), we will discuss some characteristics of the phase of initiation into teaching (0 to 3 years), which Nóvoa (2017) refers to as a period between means, between two, in the intermediate phase or professional induction, that is, a phase that lies between the end of initial training and the beginning of insertion into the teaching profession. For the authors, it is during this phase that we should pay more attention to beginning teachers, for example by creating mentoring and residency programs for these professors.
The Teaching Residency Program aims to improve the training of basic education teachers who have already graduated, by developing their teaching skills in the field, with the aim of complementing the education received in the higher education institution of origin with experience in a school environment of recognized excellence (Brazil, 2018).
Based on the above, we will analyze some characteristics, impacts, and potential of the Teaching Residency Program (TRP) developed by the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) - in partnership with the Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII - for the continuous training of early career professors. To this end, this text is structured as follows: first, we will present discussions on the continuing education of teachers, followed by the paths taken in the research; then, we will characterize the TRP and analyze the data, discussing the potential and impact of the program on the professional training of professors; finally, we will present the conclusions.
The Professional Induction of Beginning Professors
According to research by Feiman-Nemser (1983), Imbernón (2001), Marcelo García (1999), Nóvoa (1995) and Tardif (1990), a professor's training process can be subdivided into four distinct and progressive phases, as shown in Chart 1.
Chart 1 shows that teacher education does not necessarily begin in higher education, but takes place throughout an individual's personal, professional, and academic career.
The pre-service phase includes the prior experiences of future professors as students, from kindergarten through high school. Initial education refers to the stage of formal preparation at a particular institution of higher education to obtain a degree and become a professor. On the other hand, teaching initiation and professional induction correspond to the first years of professional practice. Finally, continuous and ongoing training includes all the training activities that are subsequently promoted by the institutions and by the professors themselves throughout their lives and careers.
In this article, we will discuss the last two phases. Regarding the induction phase and professional induction, we will use the contributions of Nóvoa (2019) and the National Education Plan (Brazil, 2014). Then, since the TRP is considered a continuous training program in its official documents, we will discuss the concepts of the continuous or permanent training phase.
Nóvoa (2019) asserts that we will only understand professional induction if we – education professionals – and teacher training itself are willing to overcome three silences that have marked periods of professional induction throughout the historical process of education. They are:
[...] (a) the silence of university teacher training institutions, which have paid little attention to this period, considering that their work is finished when they hand over their diploma; (b) the silence of educational policies, which have failed to define the necessary processes for selecting candidates for the teaching profession, for access to the profession, and for monitoring young teachers in schools; and (c) the silence of the teaching profession itself, i.e., of the more experienced practicing professors, who should be more involved in the training of their young colleagues.
(Nóvoa, 2019, p. 200).
In this context, we believe that one initiative capable of breaking these three silences that characterize Nóvoa is the program of mentorship for beginning professors.
Based on Strategy 18.2 of the National Education Plan (Brazil, 2014), these programs, aimed at beginning professors, aim to implement in public basic and higher education networks the monitoring of beginning professors, supervised and guided by more experienced professionals, in order to support the decision to hire them after their probationary period. They also aim to offer in-depth study courses in the professor's area of expertise, focusing on the content to be taught, teaching methods, etc.
Despite this support, various studies (André, 2012; Gatti, 2012; Lima; Carneiro, 2021; Papi; Martins, 2010; Rabelo; Monteiro, 2021; Romanowski, 2012) have shown that faculty mentoring programs in Brazil are still in their infancy. As an example, of the six institutionalized programs for beginning teachers in our country, four have already been closed: The Program for the Assistance of Beginning Teachers (PAPIC), at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT); the Program for the Assistance of Beginning Physical Education Teachers (PADI), at the Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense (Unesc); the Online Mentoring Program, at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar); and the Teaching Residency Project, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Only two remain: the Teaching Residency Program at Colégio Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro; and the Teaching Residency Program (TRP) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF).
The TRP, in its current documents, is characterized as a training program that aims to improve the training of professors of basic education through the development of teaching skills in the field, with the objective of complementing the training received in higher education institutions with experience in the school environment at the João XXIII College of Application.
According to the National Curriculum Guidelines for Initial and Continuing Education, continuing education includes
[...] collective, organizational, and professional dimensions, as well as the rethinking of the pedagogical process, knowledge, and values, and involves extension activities, study groups, pedagogical meetings, courses, programs, and actions beyond the minimum training required to exercise teaching in basic education, with the main purpose of reflecting on educational practice and the search for technical, pedagogical, ethical, and political improvement of the teaching professional
(Brasil, 2015, p. 13).
The TRP is also a specialization course, which makes it, according to Article 1 of CNE/CES Resolution No. 1, a continuing training program that aims to "[...] complement academic training, update, incorporate technical skills, and develop new professional profiles, in order to improve performance in the world of work and meet the demand for more technically qualified professionals” (Brazil, 2018, p. 1).
Thus, it can be seen that the TRP correlates the training of professors at the beginning of their careers with the professional induction phase. It offers recently graduated professors the opportunity to enter the job market through a project that includes research, teaching, extension, and management, with the aim of improving teaching practice, building professional identity, and teacher training.
Dimensions of Training in the Residency Program Teachers
Marcelo García (1999, p. 26) defines teacher education as a set of initial or continuing training processes "[...] that enable teachers to acquire or improve their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to carry out their teaching activity, in order to improve the quality of education".
The author also states that teacher training should be understood in three ways: first, as a social function of mediation between knowledge, knowing how to do or knowing how to be, which benefits the socio-economic system or the dominant culture; second, as a process of development and structuring of the person who realizes the possibilities of learning; and third, as an institution, when the organizational structure plans and develops training activities (Marcelo García, 1999).
Thus, we understand that professional teacher training, whether initial or continuing, is a process in which educational professionals have the opportunity to learn; to increase their autonomy and knowledge of the teaching and learning process; to dialogue with peers; to relate theory to practice; to develop their professional identity; to have new experiences about the school and the school community, and so on.
In their analysis of the TRP, Callian and Magalhães (2019) identify five dimensions that can be used to evaluate and train teachers: authorship, collaborative networks and communities, immersion, language training, and reflection.
Regarding authorship, Callian and Magalhães (2019, p. 149) point out that "[...] this dimension concerns the construction of one's uniqueness in teacher education and in the teaching profession". For the authors, this dimension is related to the construction of the professor's identity, how to be a professor, how to study, observe, reflect, collaborate, elaborate, discuss the different tasks that are developed in the profession.
With regard to networks and collaborative communities, the authors believe that they are related to authorship and can be called dimensions "[...] of networks, communities, collegiality, collaborative groups (or similar terms) that lead to the idea of coexistence and collectivity" (Callian; Magalhães, 2019, p. 153).
With regard to immersion, Callian and Magalhães (2019) point out that it is an important formative practice in teacher training because it brings together the school, the university, the professor, and their professional development. For them, the act of immersing oneself in the profession helps to understand the school as a concrete and real training space, which can provide novice teachers with the opportunity to reflect on daily life, school organization, and the articulation between theory and practice through a deep experience in the school environment.
When it comes to language training, the authors point out that it is related to immersion, authorship, and collaboration, and should take place through oral and written language. They also add that this act "[...] means that the professional development of teachers also takes place through the insertion of professors in actual practices of understanding, production, and circulation of language" (Callian; Magalhães, 2019, p. 155), for example, through the use and circulation of textual genres, recording the results of teaching work, and participating in scientific events and lectures, among others.
Reflection, on the other hand, can be considered in "[...] the whole process of training a professor [which] must be built on opportunities for continuous reflection on the relationship between theory and practice, constantly analyzing actions" (Callian; Magalhães, 2019, p. 158). Thus, it is necessary to critically reflect on experiences in teacher education, whether negative or positive.
The five dimensions proposed by Callian and Magalhães (2019) converge with the proposal of the National Education Plan for the ten-year period 2014-2024 (Brazil, 2014), which emphasizes the importance of effective actions that implement, in public basic and higher education networks, the accompaniment of novice professionals supervised by teams of experienced professionals, offering in-depth study courses in the professor's area of expertise, with emphasis on the content to be taught, teaching methodologies for each subject, reflection on practice, etc.
Given the context presented, we can see that the theoretical approaches take schoolwork as a reference and are concerned with taking on dimensions in teacher training that are immersed in the practical component and in reflections centered on the learning of professors to move into the profession. They are based on the acquisition of a professional culture and give experienced professors an important role in the training of novice teachers, valuing collaborative work, oral and written language and the collective exercise of the profession.
Research paths
In order to analyze some characteristics, impact, and potential of the TRP in the training of teachers at the beginning of their careers, we chose to use a qualitative research methodology, considering that, as Araújo and Borba (2004) point out, it should contain a vision of knowledge in line with data production procedures linked to questionnaires, interviews, video analysis, and interpretations.
To this end, we used a characterization questionnaire answered only by the resident professors1; semi-structured interviews with resident professors, experienced professors, mentors, mediators, the collaborator responsible for the pedagogical and administrative coordination of the TRP, and the Dean of Undergraduate Studies at UFJF; and document analysis.
We used the qualitative perspective of Matias-Pereira (2012), who argues that this type of approach takes into account a relationship of dynamics, values, exchanges, and sharing between the researcher, the researched subject, the reality, and the school community to which they belong. Thus, the interpretation of phenomena and the attribution of meanings are based on a given natural environment, in our case, the Teaching Residency Program. As already mentioned, interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis were used as direct sources of data.
Corroborating these ideas, Moresi (2003, p. 8) points out that
[...] qualitative research is descriptive; the researcher is the key instrument; the focus is on quality (nature and essence); the setting is familiar and natural; the aim is to understand, describe, generate hypotheses about an object; researchers tend to analyze their data inductively; the process and its meaning are the main focus of this approach and the results are comprehensive and expository.
Based on qualitative research, we chose a case study as our modality. According to Yin (2005), a case study is an empirical investigation based on fieldwork or documentary analysis. It examines a given entity in its real context, making full use of multiple sources of evidence such as interviews, observations, documents, and artifacts.
Gil (2009) points out some purposes of case studies: 1) to explore real-life situations whose boundaries are not clearly defined; 2) to preserve the unitary character of the object studied; 3) to describe the contextual situation in which a given investigation is carried out; 4) to formulate hypotheses or develop theories; and 5) to explain the causal variables of a given phenomenon in complex situations that do not allow the use of surveys and experiments.
Therefore, we believe that case studies can be used to investigate issues that affect the educational system as a whole, whether in the teaching and learning processes of students or in the initial and continuing training programs for professors, curricula, etc. We understand that this research was a case study because the TRP is a unique program with specific characteristics.
The data were generated from the information obtained through the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview conducted with the participants and the organizers of the TRP. We used the semi-structured interview because it is an efficient tool for generating data in qualitative research: "[...] it is based on the dialogue between the researcher and the interviewees, allowing at the same time the freedom of expression of the interviewee and the maintenance of the focus by the interviewer" (Gil, 2009, p. 137).
Gil (2009) states that an interview is considered a form of social interaction in which one of the parties seeks to produce data and the other presents itself as a rich source of information. The questionnaire, on the other hand, consists of a set of questions asked to people in order to obtain information on a specific topic. Thus, we used these two tools in a complementary way to gain a deeper insight into the topic at hand, enriching the information and providing a more complete understanding.
We obtained responses from a resident and a former resident (Júlia and Pereira, respectively), two experienced professors, mentors, and mediators (Leonardo and Margareth), one member of the Teaching Residency Commission (CORED) in charge of pedagogical and administrative coordination (Isabela), and the Dean of Undergraduate Studies at UFJF (Amorim). The research participants chose the names by which they wished to be identified in the study.
The analyses were carried out in an attempt to achieve the objective of this article: to analyze the characteristics, impact, and potential of the TRP (Teaching Residency Program) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora – in partnership with the João XXIII College of Application – in the training of early career professors.
Since this is an excerpt from a Master's research project, we will focus here on two of the four axes that emerged from the analysis: the TRP and its impact on teacher training; and the potential and limitations of the TRP. Next, we will briefly characterize the program and then present and analyze the data.
Characteristics of the UFJF Teaching Residency Program
The TRP, in its documents, is constituted as a training program for teachers at the postgraduate level, associated, at the time of the research, with the Pro-Rector for Undergraduate Studies of the UFJF. Created in 2018 and implemented in 2019 by the Sectoral Council for Undergraduate Studies, the program was responsible for matters related to the continuing training of professors and defined the principles, foundations, training dynamics, and procedures to be observed in the policies, management, programs, and courses of the UFJF aimed at training teachers for basic education.
According to the Institutional Pedagogical Project (UFJF, 2018), the TRP aims to improve the training of professors by offering a continuing training program that constitutes a reality of interaction between academic research and teaching practice. In fact, it contributes to the improvement of the quality of undergraduate education through the development of teaching skills in the field, with the aim of complementing the training received at the undergraduate level with experience in the school environment.
The functional organization of the TRP is made up of a Pedagogical Coordinator, an Administrative Coordinator and a Degree Coordinator; it involves residents, supervising professors who are part of the permanent staff of the Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII and professors who make up the Teaching Residency Commission (CORED), the body that plans, coordinates, supervises and evaluates the program and its selection processes.
The TRP is aimed at graduates who have completed a full course of study in the specialties offered by the Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII as areas, subjects and/or crosscutting themes, from the 1st year of primary school to the 3thr year of secondary school, in Youth and Adult Education (EJA) and in Early Childhood Education2.
According to the notice, vacancies are offered in the following areas: Pedagogy, Early Childhood Education, Portuguese Language, Foreign Language (English, French, or Spanish), Geography, Mathematics, Sociology, Biological Sciences, History, Chemistry, Physical Education and Arts (Visual Arts, Dance, Music, or Theater).
Which establishes three requirements for participation in the selection process: (a) to be within three years of completing the full course of study; (b) to devote themselves exclusively to the residency and not to engage in any other professional activity during this period; (c) to participate in the three stages of the selection process carried out by the members of CORED: an objective test, an essay test, an interview, and an analysis of the CV.
Participation in the TRP is remunerated with part of the UFJF's own budget. In the first two years of the program (2020 and 2021), the amount of this remuneration will be R$ 3,330.43 per month; in 2023, the amount will be R$ 4,106.09 per month, in line with the other health residency programs of the University. Participation in the TRP lasts 12 months, and the resident must complete a total of 2,880 hours of annual activities, which represents 60 hours per week of classroom and extracurricular activities.
In characterizing the program, Amorim and Isabela point out that the main purpose of the TRP is not to train professors for higher education, although this may be the case. According to the research participants, the initiative aims to
[...] to train diagrams of professors who stay in primary schools. In it, the professor has exclusive practical immersion and postgraduate training. As well as being an opportunity to bring the university closer to public schools and basic education
(Amorim, interview).
What I saw a lot in both classes was a desire not only to be a teacher, but also to be a public school professor. There were even two resident teachers [one of whom is Pereira] who are now substitute professors at the Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII
(Isabela, interview).
Moreover, according to Amorim and the program's guiding documents, the essence of the residency must be built on a daily basis and be based on the dimensions of immersion and reflection, as noted by Callian and Magalhães (2019).
With regard to the dimension of authorship, Júlia points out that the contact with the program was able to help her with the demands and support she received as a beginning professor, as it led her to realize that
[...] that the teacher still has to learn the techniques that will be used in different school environments, from the classroom, the control of the classroom, issues related to good rhetoric, to issues related to teaching and learning for the different students in the class, to the bureaucratic issues of the profession, such as filling in diaries, meetings, deadlines, among others, which, even if they are left aside, when you think about a university curriculum matrix - with object knowledge and didactic knowledge - make up the professor's actions
(Júlia, questionnaire).
It can be seen that the characterization of TRP also seems to be in line with the dimension of networks and collaborative communities proposed by Callian and Magalhães (2019). Nóvoa (2017) considers teacher integration programs as learning spaces experienced by residents and supervising professors, who define the program in this way:
[...] a co-teaching experience that can help them to have a professional induction in the very professional sense of the profession, where there are two professors in the same room, presented as professors, not as trainees, assistants, or other similar synonyms
(Júlia, interview).
[...] this shared teaching experience is what establishes a different relationship, because then the professor is on an equal footing, thinking together, planning together, making and problematizing interventions together
(Margareth, interview).
According to Gutiérrez Arias (2020), the term co-teaching has several definitions. We'll use the one proposed by Channmugan and Gerlach (2013, p. 110), who see co-teaching as "[...] a teaching method that brings together two professors of equal status to create a learning community with shared planning, teaching, and student assessment". Thus, we understand co-teaching as the practice and space in which two professors are together, involved, and share responsibility for planning, designing, and implementing the curriculum, lesson plans, didactics, and the lesson itself, among other functions.
These aspects of the network and collaborative community dimension are evidenced in Júlia's and Pereira's statements, respectively:
Margareth [the supervising professor] treated her like a professor throughout her teaching career. There were times when she didn't know how to solve questions in the high school, she would say: 'Júlia, I don't see a solution to this question, can you help me? Therefore, this relationship of simplicity, of welcoming the other... and what I found most important in the residency was how the professors opened the space without fear of judgment for the work they were doing, not because their work was flawless, but because they wanted to learn together with the newcomers
(Júlia, interview).
In the teaching residency, I was totally a professor, I was in the classroom, and I was not a student trainee. The professor introduced me to the classroom as a teacher with a master's degree. One day I said something [to the supervising professors] and they listened to me and gave me a lot of attention
(Pereira, interview).
It can be seen that the sense of a collaborative dimension, of self-creation, of language, of reflection on practice and immersion (Callian; Magalhães, 2019), in other words co-teaching (Gutiérrez Arias, 2020), integrates professors when residents and supervisors form a duo, a working group in which they both learn with the aim of teaching, planning, developing, implementing, managing and evaluating the teaching and learning process. To do this, they create lesson plans, pedagogical projects, and collaborate on didactic activities - assessments, tutoring in out-of-class support situations, working to integrate technology into the classroom, out-of-class activities, or co-teaching classes with the supervising professors.
In support of the ideas presented, Isabela, in her interview, affirms the existence of a collaborative community - "[...] both for the novice and the experienced professor. In the TRP, teachers prepare lessons together, give lessons together, correct materials together, think about activities together, so it's really working together" - which helps them learn to know, do, live together, be and feel like teachers. In fact, such tasks have a positive impact on teacher education, as we'll see below.
Potential and Impact on Continuing Teacher Education
In this section, we will present some of the possibilities and impacts shared by the participants and organizers of the UFJF Teaching Residency Program.
Residents perceive the residency "[...] as a place to explain, to experience, in Larrosa's sense. You can open up, you can explain, and you can see if it works" (Júlia, questionnaire). For Júlia, the TRP represents, as Larrosa Bondía (2002, p. 21) points out, "[...] an experience that goes through us, that happens to us, that touches us. Not what happens, not what happens, not what touches. In this way, experience is directly related to man; indeed, it is only realized by man". In addition, it constitutes a space of formation that is not experienced in undergraduate courses. A place of professional induction (Nóvoa, 2009).
In addition, the residents' statements show that participating in the TRP in co-teaching with more experienced professors has given them the opportunity to realize that all professionals, even the most experienced, have problems, difficulties, and challenges in their daily teaching practice, and that the TRP makes it possible to live together, share, understand, adapt, and help with these challenges.
It should also be noted that the TRP gives these novice teachers a "[...] creative, purposeful, supportive perspective, sensitive to social concerns identified with the construction of a socially just, democratic and inclusive society" (Cosenza; Dias; Amorim, 2020, p. 34), which can be seen in Júlia's speech:
Thus, in order for a teacher to begin to be, to feel, to act, to know, and to intervene, he or she must first have access to different lines of learning and teaching, be placed in schools, and be trained by the professor in the school. This set of trainings, obtained by the university together with the school, is essential for the initial training of the professor. The school should be the goal of the student; since it is there that, he will practice his profession. (Júlia, questionnaire).
Another factor worth mentioning is the amount of the grant offered to residents who take part in the TRP, which is on a par with other residency programs in the health field, as pointed out earlier in this investigation and highlighted by Leonardo and Isabela, respectively:
[...] the pay is excellent. If you compare it to salaries in the state and municipal networks, it's the same
(Leonardo, interview).
The value of the grant seems to tell us that there is an appreciation for this continuing training, which shows that education at this point is at the same level of investment as medical or multiprofessional residency
(Isabela, Interview).
However, due to the cuts that have occurred at the university in recent years, the Pro-Rector points out that financial problems have become a limitation for the continuity of the program, which does not work with funds from Capes, but with UFJF's own budget: "[...] financial problems and maintaining the payment of scholarships. Since the program is not funded by the federal government, by Capes, it is funded by the Dean's Office, by the University, and it is organized by the Dean's Office" (Amorim, interview).
Margareth confirms this and points out, "[...] the big problem with the project is continuity. It really needs to continue as a program, and that needs to be guaranteed. Political and economic issues have made this difficult. For example, there are now five scholarships to be offered in 2022." There is therefore a concern on the part of these actors to stabilize and affirm the relevance and recognition of the pedagogical, political, and formative importance of the TRP and its dimensions.
In the interviews conducted for this research, we encountered moments of interdisciplinarity in the work with technologies, inclusion, human rights, and the school community. These aspects were evidenced in the linguistic dimension (Callian; Magalhães, 2019) and include offering and participating in training practices through the subjects of the Lato Sensu postgraduate course, which totals 480 hours: (1) research and knowledge in teaching practice; (2) human rights, diversity, and ethics; (3) technologies in the teaching and learning process; (4) special education from the perspective of inclusion; (5) basic and contemporary education seminars; (6) orientation of teacher training work I; and (7) orientation of teacher training work II.
Leonardo, the supervising professor, also points out that the participation in the subjects is extremely important for the teacher training, as it allows the resident to learn, discuss and reflect on aspects beyond the subjects offered during the initial training. He also points out:
He even did a course with me and Felipe [another experienced professor] on technology, working with robotics and programming, accompanying our projects with children in various areas. As well as subjects that involved discussions about [...] special needs, learning and working with autistic students, those with ADHD and special education
(Leonardo, Interview).
Corroborating Leonardo's comments, Isabela presents more positive aspects and links between theory and practice. She emphasizes the need for improvement in these subjects, saying that it will be necessary in the coming years,
[...] improve the dialog between the disciplines, so that one talks to the other. In addition, to think of a way for beginning teachers to have more contact with the professors at the Institute of Education and not just with the experienced professor who accompanies them, since [...] the João XXIII College of Application is part of the university and the residency comes to create and reaffirm this approach. One thing we didn't fail to do, however, was to make the subjects relate to the reality of the novice professor. For example, the subject of Special Education from the Perspective of inclusion is something we don't see. I think the sensational thing about this subject is that it takes cases of ADHD and autism from the school, for example
(Isabela, Interview).
Regarding the Teaching Training Work (TFD), which consists of an academic product in the dimensions of authorship, language, reflection, and is related to teaching practice - when evaluated by a committee, it counts as a partial requirement for obtaining the Lato Sensu Postgraduate Certificate - Margareth and Amorim, respectively, state that it is an opportunity "[. ...] for the resident to write about their pedagogical practice, to articulate theory and practice, and to improve writing and speaking", as well as for the "[...] professors to research their own practice and to return to the school what they have achieved in the residency in terms of reflection and consolidation in terms of research results".
Regarding the TRP, Amorim also states that '[...] it creates opportunities for a series of postgraduate training possibilities in continuing education', such as the Specialist in Teaching Residency certificate, which effectively characterizes the program as a continuing education action, in accordance with the National Curriculum Guidelines for Initial and Continuing Education (Brazil, 2015) and CNE/CES Resolution No. 1 (Brazil, 2018).
In addition to these factors, the participants of the study indicate that such programs are very important for the insertion of professors and that it is necessary to expand the mandatory public policies aimed at professional induction programs to promote the continuing training of beginning professors, as demonstrated by Rabelo and Monteiro (2021), Romanowski (2012), and Lima and Carneiro (2021).
Amorim also notes that the TRP was designed and structured as a program that could be an example of possible public policy: "[...] capable of promoting a formative and pedagogical innovation to value the teaching career or good training, at the same time with a decent and dignified remuneration for the professionals selected" (Amorim, interview).
In her interview, Margareth also points out that it is necessary to stabilize the program so that it is understood as a possible public policy "[...] priority, and that the TRP must be recognized in its pedagogical, political and formative importance".
In line with these statements, Gatti (2012), Papi and Martins (2010), Rabelo and Monteiro (2021), Romanowski (2012) and Lima and Carneiro (2021) point out that, although it is an object of great relevance for reflection on teacher training, there are still few studies and induction and insertion programs for new professors in Brazil. For this reason, there is a need for this research, among many others, to give visibility to these novice professors and to think in the future about establishing possible policies and actions to support them.
The supervising professor, Margareth, also points out that the Teaching Residency Program is something unique and that, even with so much experience, she has never experienced anything so intense and with such complicity and partnership in her entire teaching career. She emphasizes that "[...] it's as if the participants were one brain and one heart, but in different bodies. [No one who joins at any stage of the process leaves without being affected by some form of learning. This confirms the dimensions of teacher training proposed by Callian and Magalhães (2019).
Given the context presented, we can see that the program provided this novice teacher and all those involved with additional training in relation to issues of the teaching and learning process and aspects of the community and school life, integrating them into the profession. It gave them the opportunity to make progress in their work as professors, in their professional trajectories and identities, based on the experience and moments of reflection, sharing, exchange and co-teaching during the TRP.
Final considerations
The aim of this article was to analyze the characteristics, impact, and potential of the TRP (Teacher Residency Program) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) - in partnership with the João XXIII College of Application - for the training of early career professors. For this purpose, a qualitative study based on a case study was conducted.
The TRP seems to meet the objective of providing a reflective, dynamic environment, with peer exchange, sharing of school knowledge and teaching learning, support between the resident professors, their supervisors, the TRP organizers and coordinators.
In addition, the novice teachers could build new experiences, develop autonomy in the production and development of didactic strategies, experience (inter)disciplinarity, immerse themselves intensively in the school environment and community, as well as receive conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal support with the aim of minimizing recurring problems and difficulties in everyday school life and seeking professional development.
These immersions, authorship, reflection, collaborative networks and communities, and language development (Callian; Magalhães, 2019) helped this early career teacher to face, manage, survive, discover, theorize, practice and experience the first years of teaching in partnership with an experienced professor, mediator and mentor, with the school and the university. As Cosenza, Dias and Amorim (2020, p. 36) point out, the TRP is able to "[...] provide recent graduates with additional training on teaching issues in the field/discipline and on aspects of school life, integrating them into the daily life of the school".
The TRP is one of the initiatives that help to make the teaching profession less lonely and allow the new teacher to experience the school environment in an intensive and immersive way. These actions can minimize the dropout rate of beginning teachers and control insecurity, fear, anxiety, dissatisfaction, reality shock, resignation, disgust with the knowledge and experience of the school universe, as well as help teachers at the beginning of their career in their training process, in building their professional identity and in being, feeling, acting and intervening as a professor.
We can see these aspects in the excerpts of both the residents and the other actors participating in the program, which shows that this is an important space for training teachers at the beginning of their careers. Thus, it was a favorable place to learn about the teaching and learning process, to (re)get to know the school community and its characteristics, and to effectively become a professor. In this sense, it can be said that the TRP is an initiative that trains professionals "[...] in the space of the profession, the result of a shared rethinking among professors, with the aim of understanding and improving the work of teaching" (Nóvoa, 2017, p. 1125).
Finally, the program, although still very specific, is an example of an initiative to accompany professors at the beginning of their careers in their professional induction, which makes it even more relevant, since there are few actions like this in Brazil and with such important characteristics for teacher training.
Notes
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1
During the research there was one resident and one ex-resident, but we chose to use the term resident for both cases in the text.
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2
As the school does not offer early childhood education, a partnership with the Municipal Department of Education is necessary for the residents of this level of education to work in the school environment.
Availability of research data
The data set supporting the results of this study is published in the article itself.
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