STS and the initial training of Biology teachers: What do the graduates say?

Abstract

Studies point out the importance of inserting the STS perspective in the Initial formation of Science and Biology teachers. This article aims to understand how graduates from the Biology teacher training course at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) report having experienced STS in their initial training. Therefore, an empirical qualitative research was conducted based on narratives of six graduates, through the focus group and Discursive Textual Analysis, former fellows of the Institutional Scholarship Program for Initiation to Teaching in the Biology Degree course at UFBA (PIBID/Biology/UFBA). The analysis of the teachers’ narratives revealed that many times the graduates experienced STS in a tense and at the same time very formative way, after all, one of the objectives of the Initiation to Teaching (ID) was to integrate students with schools in order to subsidize technical, scientific and pedagogical knowledge in the field of Biology teaching. This tension between the STS training from Initiation to Teaching and the traditional training of undergraduate students revealed the position of the graduates on the need for a pedagogical and methodological reformulation in the initial teacher training courses so that the experiences and knowledge acquired during the training process relate directly to the reality of the school and society.