PEDAGOGICAL RECONTEXTUALIZATION AND POLICIES FOR IN-SERVICE EDUCATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS: A STUDY OF PDE-PR

Bernstein's (1990, 2000) theory of pedagogic device is adopted as a theoretical framework for the analysis of representations of an in-service teacher education program as part of a public policy in Brazil. The program has a hybrid format and seeks to integrate theory and practice, by bringing the schoolteacher and his/her practical knowledge closer to the epistemology predominant in the university. Two sets of data were generated: 1) transcripts of the audiorecording of a focus group attended by teacher educators responsible for supervision and teaching activities within the Program; 2) a retrospective narrative of a public school teacher, co-author of this article and former participant of the Program. The representations of trainers on political-pedagogical assumptions and principles of the program showed distributive and recontextualizing rules that contributed to the reproduction of the official discourse. The teacher's narrative, in turn, stresses positive aspects that resulted in learning opportunity for himself. The distributive rules of continuing education and, later, of the curricular organization, governed the pedagogical recontextualization in the school, resulting in transformations of academic knowledge.