Explorando possibilidades acerca da construção da identidade profissional em contexto de estágio em educação física: contributo para a formação de professores através de um olhar etnográfico

Abstract

Through an ethnographic approach, the present research aimed to contribute to the understanding of the process of (re)construction of the professional identity of the physical education preservice teacher during the school placement. For this purpose, six studies were carried out, two of which are conceptual, three empirical and one is a methodological reflection. The first conceptual study is a scoping review of 84 peer-reviewed empirical articles. Its purpose was to map empirical research and identify the crucial elements for the construction of the professional identity. The second conceptual study started from the inquiry of the concept of community of practice to explore its formative value and potential constraints in the construction of the professional identity of the preservice teacher in the context of teacher training. With regard to empirical studies, the objectives were: 1) to understand how the processes of agency and structure manifest themselves during the school placement, how they (inter)relate and what is their influence in the construction of the professional identity of the preservice teacher; 2) to examine how the emotions experienced by the preservice teachers during the school placement contribute to the construction of the professional identity; and 3) to explore the archetypes of mentoring used by the cooperating teacher and what is their contribution to the construction of the professional identity of the preservice teachers. The last article is a reflection centred on the ethical dilemmas experienced by the researcher in the process of ethnographic data collection and writing. The participants in these studies were four preservice students and a cooperating physical education teacher. The researcher was involved in an ethnographic study as a participant observer during the school placement, from September to June, and remained four days a week at school. The collection instruments included participant observation, field notes and interviews. The qualitative analysis of the data resorted to strategies of deductive, inductive and thematic content analysis. From the data analysis, it emerged that the concept of professional identity is multidimensional, influenced by the (re)interpretation of personal and professional experiences and constantly (re)negotiated with the social and cultural context of school and society. Therefore, learning to be a teacher presupposes that the preservice teacher learns the rules, principles and resources that characterize the profession. The progressive learning of these elements and the experience of the profession is done in a contextualized way, guided by the more experienced members of the group who, in this specific case, were oriented by the cooperating teacher towards the creation of a community of practice. Social and contextual interactions with members of the community of practice allowed preservice teachers to develop effective teaching practices and to evolve from a legitimate peripheral participation to the centre of the community of practice. The power relations existing within the community of practice were visible through the processes of agency and structure, which should be balanced in order to enable preservice teachers to exercise agency and, consequently, to develop greater confidence in their professional identity. The commitment of preservice teachers to the individual and collective professional development of the community of practice has found its roots in mentoring as collaborative self-development. The mentoring process surpassed the cognitive, technical and social support and also focused on the emotional aspects that originated in the uncertainty and ambiguity of the professional identity construction process. A transforming character was given to the reflection because it allowed the preservice teachers to overpower the demotivation and disinterest caused by the negative emotions and to define strategies to overcome the difficulties. Positive emotions resulted, above all, from the growing recognition of the preservice teachers as physical education teachers by their peers. Emotivity was present not only in the experiences of the preservice teachers, but also in what the researcher lived during the data collection. As a researcher, self-reflection allowed to recognize that the complexity of the social relations established with the participants throughout the collection period implies a constant adaptation to overcome the ethical dilemmas that constantly arise.