A constituição das disciplinas de metodologia do ensino de língua portuguesa (MELP) em dois cursos de licenciatura em Letras da região metropolitana de Belém

Abstract

This research intends developing a discussion concerning the initial formation of teachers in undergraduate courses of Portuguese Language Teaching. The crisis Brazilian education is suffering nowadays affects Brazilian universities and reflects directly on the quality of basic education. Those universities must constitute centers of formation, reflection, and production of knowledge for the school. The problem universities face up, specially concerning teachers‘ initial formation, has roots more complex than the formulation of quantitative goals for the initial formation of teachers or than the allocation of financial resources. It is important – and necessary – that one knowns the constitution of the undergraduate courses that form the teachers nowadays. Therefore the proposed research aims at investigating in two Higher Education Institutions from Belém-PA (one public and one private) the constitution of the “disciplines” of Portuguese Language Teaching Methodology. The theoretical framework that guides this research is the French Discourse Analysis, particularly the concepts of Enunciative Function, Discursive Formation and Discipline, presented by Michel Foucault in his works The Archaeology of Knowledge (1987) and The Discourse on Language (1996). We analyzed data collected in documental research (Pedagogical Project of the Course, syllabuses, Teaching Plans, and Didactical Materials) and field research (classroom observation, students‘ notes, and field diary) with the intention of verifying what elements of disciplines, in the foucauldian sense (FOUCAULT, 1996), are presented in the constitution of the curricular activity of Portuguese Language Teaching Methodology in the undergraduate course of Portuguese Language Teaching. Data from both disciplines were analyzed in order to identify what objects, methods, propositions, definitions/concepts are recognized and in what manner they interrelate. Results show a very diverse setting as for the organization of activities of teaching practice and supervised training in both courses in what concerns a) the distribution of credit hours in the curriculum; b) the articulation of objects, methods, concepts, and propositions of various disciplines; and c) the proper role of the Portuguese Language Teaching undergraduate student. The challenge presented is the constitution of the activity Portuguese Language Teaching Methodology from a disciplinary process of knowledge production.