Representações sociais de autonomia e o uso das tecnologias na prática docente

The aim of this research is to analyze the social representations of autonomy shared among public school teachers, in order to identify the relationships they establish with information and communication technologies – how is the ICT in the teaching practice. There are several discussions around the concept of autonomy, which is defended as an educational principle that must be present in both teachers and students. It should exist in order to consolidate a democratic society where the human being is able to play the role of the protagonist who constructs society. Corresponding to that is the use of technologies: more and more present in the school daily routine, such use is seen as an opportunity to develop an autonomous individual. The specific structural approach of the theory of social representations was the main theoric-methodological reference in the present research, which also constituted itself from two empirical studies. The first study was designated to identify the content and the structure from the social representations of autonomy, and from the teaching autonomy shared among 421 teachers in Pernambuco state. The data was collected through tests of free association; they were analyzed with the help of softwares such as Trideux, Evoc and Content Analysis. The examination of the semantic field of the concepts “autonomy” and “teachers’ autonomy” showed us that the content of those social representations is made by elements whose origins are moral, social, intellectual, affectionate and professional. Generally, teachers see autonomy as composed by: freedom, responsibility, independence, security, decision, capacity and leadership. In the social representation of teachers’ autonomy (besides the previous elements), teachers also made evident the importance of professional-pedagogic aspects, connected to knowledge, planning and commitment. In this sense, teachers’ autonomy is referring to two different moments: that one when planning is made (by choosing actions and contents that prioritize cognitive aspects); and another one that refers to mediation (the way teachers should behave in front of students and with classroom dynamics). In the second study, we tried to identify the relationships existing among representations of autonomy and the use of technologies in the classroom. In this study, we will focus on the practice of 12 teachers, with whom we made a analysis of the data (obtained through observations, quizzes and interviews – oriented by the results of the first study). We verified that a bigger presence of ICT in schools has started to build new educational scenarios. Teachers describe the changes occurring in students’ and teachers’ roles because of mobility, and also because of the possibility of interactions and access to content brought by technology. Teachers’ practices (with the use of technology) reflect the elements that belong to social representations of autonomy they share. Among them, the strongest element was the freedom given to teachers to decide and to build knowledge – with the aim of orienting their posture in front of students.