Life histories and autobiographies in teachereducation and teaching profession (Brazil, 1985-2003)*

Belmira Oliveira BuenoHelena Coharik ChamlianCynthia Pereira de SousaDenice Barbara CataniUniversidade de São Paulo

Abstract

The text offers a survey within the area of Education of the worksthat make use of life histories and autobiographic studies as ascientific research methodology in Brazil. The period between1985 and 2003 is focused under two different slants, one tempo-ral, and the other thematic: teacher education and teachingprofession. The main purpose here was to map out the nationalproduction, seeking to identify the themes that have emergedwith greater strength, pointing out deficient aspects, andsuggesting directions for future studies in this field. Severalsources were utilized: abstracts of theses and dissertations fromthe CAPES database; complete texts of theses and dissertationspresented to the graduate programs of the Pontifical CatholicUniversity of São Paulo – PUC-SP – and of the Faculty ofEducation of the University of São Paulo – FEUSP; books; andscientific journals. The analyses have shown that the use of theseapproaches has grown significantly in Brazil since the 1990s but,in a very disperse manner, they have been used more as a sourceof data for the development of a wide spectrum of studies, andonly timidly as formation devices. Nevertheless, it has becomeapparent that the rise of these methodologies has contributed toa renewal in the studies about teachers, at the same time that ithas fostered the interest in new issues and themes, such as thosedeveloped, for example, in the researches about profession,professionalization and teacher identity.

Keywords

Autobiographies – Life histories – Teacher education – Teachingprofession.

Contact:Belmira O. BuenoFE – FEUSPAv. da Universidade, 30805508-040e-mail: bbueno@usp.br

* This work had, in various stages ofdata gathering, the help of DaianeVieira Piscinato, Elza Pino dos San-tos, Flávia Medeiros Sarti, FlavinêsRebolo Lapo, Lia Mara dos Santos,Marcela Ol iveira Soga, RenataMarcílio Cândido, Teresa Van Acker,and Vera Lúcia dos Santos, to whomwe would like to express our gratitude.

The use of life histories and autobiographicalstudies as methodologies of scientific investigationin the field of Education has gained visible impulsein Brazil in the last fifteen years. In comparison withthe previous period, the 1990s brought expressivechanges, displaying a dizzying growth in thenumber of studies that make use of thesemethodologies, collectively named asautobiographical.

Signs of this growth could soon be seen.In 1996, for example, at the time of theorganization of the 1st Seminar on Teaching,Memory and Gender at the Faculty of Educationof the University of São Paulo – FEUSP - , fortyworks were submitted, between ongoing andcompleted studies coming from institutionsspread throughout the country1. A few years later,when developing a study for the NationalAssociation of Research and Graduate Studies inEducation – ANPED –, we identified 40 comple-te works presented to its meetings between 1991and 20012, and 35 works presented at theNational Meetings of Didactics and TeachingPractice – ENDIPE – from 1998 to 2000,including communications, roundtables, panelsand posters. The expressive number ofinstitutions represented in these events (32 at theANPED Meetings and 21 at the ENDIPE Meetings)was revealing of a process of widespreadacceptance of autobiographical and teacher lifehistory studies that was taking place all over thecountry, but whose features were still unclear. Atthat time, we thought it opportune to quote apassage by António Nóvoa (1995) on thedirection that the studies with life histories weretaking. It was the year of 1995, and he said:

In 1988, when I published Theautobiographical method and the formationwith Mathias Finger, the biographicalapproaches were little known in Portugaland their use in teacher education had nomeaning. In 1992, when the first edition ofTeachers’ lives came to light, the situationwas considerably changed, leading me towarn against the existence of practices with

poor consistency and methodologies withno rigor. Today, in 1995, the warning mustbe printed in even larger letters. (p. 9)

This warning, added to the observationsthat such studies were gaining ground in Brazil,has prompted the development of the presentwork, with the objective of mapping out andcharacterizing the national production on thebasis of a more comprehensive assessment. Byanalyzing the use of autobiographicalmethodologies and life histories in theinvestigations about teacher education andteaching profession, the text seeks tocharacterize the trends that have emerged moreforcefully, identifying neglected aspects, andtrying to point to directions that in our view aremore fertile for future efforts in this field.

Considering the growth of the academicproduction, and the breadth and variety of thestudies found, the survey was conducted alongtwo lines, one temporal, and another thematic,focusing on a period of approximately twodecades (1985 to 2003), and emphasizing twothemes – teacher education and teachingprofession. We also considered gender issues,because of their marked presence in theresearches in Education along the analyzedperiod, in addition to being one of the focusesof analysis in our own studies onautobiographies/life histories.

The search for studies was carried outusing the following descriptors: life histories,autobiographies, memoirs, remembrances, verbaltestimonies, and narratives, intercrossed with thissurvey’s two thematic axes. This type of searchinvolves the risk of missing out some studiesdeveloped under the perspectives adopted in thissurvey, and that for two main reasons: thesubmission of inappropriate data by the graduate

1. See the Annals of the 1st Seminar on Teaching, Memory and Gender,FEUSP (Catani et al., 1997).2. This study was presented as an invited work to the Workgroup on TeacherEducation at the 25th Annual Meeting, under the title of “Studies with teachers’life histories, an emerging research field: methodological questions andperspectives for training practices” (Bueno; Catani, 2002). The text wasnot published.

programs to the Coordination of Improvement ofHigher Degree Personnel – CAPES, and themismatch of the keywords used by the studiesand our descriptors. Thus, the identification ofstudies otherwise missed out would only bepossible after direct searches at the universities’libraries, which would make it unfeasible to retainthe breadth of the assessment intended here.Considering that various sources were used, webelieve that the analyses were not compromisedas a portrayal of the broad features of thenational academic production. The corpus for theanalysis is then constituted by the following: 165abstracts of dissertations and theses, from which155 were gathered from the CAPES database, and10 from the theses database at PUC-SP andFEUSP catalog3; 39 complete texts of theses anddissertations presented to the graduate programsof PUC-SP and FEUSP (two of the mostproductive institutions); 11 books, selected fromthe catalogs of some of the main publishinghouses in the area of Education, with the help ofthe above-mentioned descriptors4; and 39 articlespublished in eight different scientific journalsamong the most relevant in the field of Education.

The assessment realized revealed that thisacademic production is characterized by hugethematic and methodological dispersion, as aresult, among other factors, of the multiplicity oftheoretical frameworks used in the studies. Thetheorists that supply the basis for these studieshave been sought in several disciplinary fields,and concepts are borrowed and combined in themost varied ways, not always free of ambiguitiesas to the methodological terms used. With noattempt at completeness, we mention here someof the terms employed by these authors:memory, memoirs, remembrances, life story (récitde vie), testimonies, biographies, educativebiographies, educative memoirs, life histories,verbal life histories, thematic verbal history,narratives, memorialistic narratives, biographicalmethod, autobiographical method, psychobio-graphical method, autobiographical perspective.It is worth noting that many studies use morethan one denomination, implying the idea that

they can be taken as synonymous. Some otherstudies try to complement one meaning withanother or one approach with another, makingit difficult to categorize them. In view of thesedifficulties to classify the studies, we haveadopted an exposition guided by the chronologyof the studies, in which we have tried to identifyand highlight the trends and themes that moreaptly characterize each decade/period. Inproposing to conduct this work, we have notattempted to exhaust the many analyses that thiscorpus allows; on the contrary, the perspectivehere has been one of offering a first map in thehope of proceeding to an initial organization ofthis academic production, and therebyencourage new studies.

Background

The information collected for this surveyrevealed that the 1980s were not a prolific periodwith regard to researches with autobiographiesand life histories. The academic output ofgraduate programs expressed in terms of abstracts(1985 to 1990) records only four works usingthese methodologies, and still not specificallyfocused on the themes of this survey5. A singlebook was located – Experiments with life histories(Italy – Brazil) – a collection of texts organized byOlga von Simon (1988) under the socio-historicalperspective of education6. The analysis of theacademic journals confirms the paucity of studies.

3. This addition was made because of observed discrepancies betweenthe abstracts as available at the CAPES Theses Database and those foundin studies from PUC-SP and FEUSP, when the full versions of the abstractswere compared.4. The following publishing houses were included (in alphabetical order):Arte & Ciência, Artmed, Ática, Autores Associados, Cortez, DP&A, Escri-turas, Mercado de Letras, Papirus, Pioneira, Unesp, Unijui, and Vozes.Some of these books were originally written as theses. The specificreferences for each case are presented ahead.5. Three of these studies were presented as theses to the Federal University ofMinas Gerais – UFMG – and one to the Federal University of Pernambuco – UFP.Their subjects were school failure, the teacher-pupil relation, literacy and reading.6. Among the chapters of this book there are two texts that becamereferences for many other contemporary and later studies: that of M. IsauraPereira de Queiroz (1988) – “Verbal reports: from the unutterable to theutterable”, and that of Zeila Demartini (1988) – “Life histories in theapproach to educational problems”. In the following paragraphs otherobservations shall be made about this theoretical-methodological approach.

The scant presence of articles on the history of theteaching profession or teacher education basedon methods of autobiographies/life histories ormemories of school life is intriguing, both in thisperiod and in the following decade. In acollection of 363 issues inspected, only thirtyworks were found – less than 10% of the wholematerial researched – as shown in Table 1.

However, it must be remarked that thetexts examined approach unevenly the axeschosen for the analysis – most of them make useof life histories, memories, remembrances,teaching, and teaching profession to producecontributions to the field of History of Education.Among the works published in the 1980s in fiveout of the six academic journals then existingthere is a dominance of contributions based onverbal and written reports, with a view tocomplement and/or link to information obtainedfrom other sources. Investigations seeking toretrace teachers’ formation and professionaltrajectories are the most noticeable. Thisobservation anticipates the signs of interest thatcertain groups of researchers would displayduring the 1990s, and that can be seen in theregistrations to congresses and events, forexample, in the groups from Minas Gerais and RioGrande do Sul7.

The place foretold by the text “Os alunose o ensino na República Velha através dasmemórias de velhos professores” [Pupils and theteaching in the Old Republic through thememories of old teachers] (Demartini; Tenca;Tenca, 1985), published in the Cadernos de Pes-quisa, is definitely secured with Zeila

Demartini’s work in the field of the historical-sociological research linked to the educationalstudies, which in this case unveiled the dailylife of rural school in the State of São Paulothrough the memories of old teachers andpupils. In 1989 the author publishes a text onthe colonelism and the expansion of theeducation system in São Paulo, with transcriptsof oral passages by teachers (Demartini, 1989).Later, in 1993, she publishes again in the Ca-dernos de Pesquisa, another article that unfoldsfrom her research in the 1980s with thememories of old teachers, whose work atprimary teaching took place until the end ofthe First Republic (Demartini, 1993). In this textthe issue of gender is particularly considered,but resorting to theoretical frameworks dealingwith women’s labor (Michael Apple, CristinaBruschini etc). Considering the history of theteaching profession, the work supplies valuableinformation, based on verbal reports/testimonies, about the working conditions offemale teachers (teaching as a profession) whencompared with the benefits and privilegesenjoyed by male teachers (teaching as acareer)8.

During this period, Educação em Revis-ta (Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG)also brings relevant contributions to the historyof the teaching profession, but differentiatedbetween themselves. One of the texts adopts aperspective that constitutes a history of thedisciplines (in this case, academic) byexamining the Psychology of Education as adiscipline in teacher education courses.Fragments of life histories of 18 teachers areused to analyze the work with this discipline

7. A preliminary analysis of the academic production published in thejournals was presented at the International Symposium Writing Life. Newapproaches to a theory of autobiography. São Paulo, University of São Pau-lo, FFLCH, September 2005 (Sousa; Catani, 2005).8. Titles in this Table would translate as follows: Revista Brasileira de EstudosPedagógicos [Brazilian Journal of Pedagogical Studies]; Cadernos de Pesquisa[Research Fascicles]; Educação e Pesquisa [Education and Research]; Educa-ção e Realidade [Education and Reality]; Educação & Sociedade [Education &Society]; Educação em Revista [Education in Review]; Psicologia USP [USPPsychology]; Revista Brasileira de Educação [Brazilian Journal of Education];Revista da Faculdade de Educação [Journal of the Faculty of Education].

from 1925 to 1984 at the Minas Gerais capital(Goulart, 1986). In 1989, a text that appears inthe Communications section of the journalhighlights the trajectory of a teacher from therural area – Mestra Iraci – who after beinginterviewed by two students from the Pedagogycourse decides to write her own narrative. Thematerial used for the article was a requisite ofa discipline and part of the research by LeaPinheiro Paixão from UFMG who, in the early1990s, published an article in this same journalabout primary teachers from Minas Gerais thathad started their careers between 1924 and1938 (Paixão, 1991). In the case of this parti-cular article, Paixão used 35 interviews withteachers, examining their social belonging, theirformation, and professional situation. There isno doubt that, on this theme, this study owesmuch to the pioneering work of ZeilaDemartini.

Still in the 1980s, the journal Educaçãoe Realidade (Federal University of Rio Grandedo Sul – UFRS) publishes a text that refersdirectly to the research on women’s educationin that State through the study of school andpedagogical practices of a century-old publicinstitution of the City of Porto Alegre (Louro,1986). Among other resources, the author madeuse of testimonies/verbal reports of womenwho, in the past, had been part of that schooluniverse as pupils and teachers. The authorGuacira Lopes Louro, who would later producemany other works under the perspective of thesocial relations of gender, put much emphasison the issue of male dominance, as well as onthe strategies of resistance of women, a novelapproach in socio-historical educational studies.

Only one – and quite peculiar – articleusing this perspective was located in the Revis-ta Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos in the1980s. It is a text written in the first person, inwhich the author (Soares, 1984) takes theopportunity of the preparation of her academicmemoirs – part of the requisites for obtainingthe title of full professor – to present heracademic trajectory. It is, therefore, an article

based on a professional life trajectory, in whichthe childhood and first school experiences arenot included, but just the academic activity,and the ideology that influenced herintellectual work.

In congresses, scientific meetings,seminar, dissertations and theses these themesappear more frequently. Although it is possibleto see in the works published during the 1980sa fairly widespread effort to defend the use ofsources associated with memories and lifehistories, through the nature of the informationto which such sources/procedures can giveaccess, the gender issue – a still incipientapproach in educational studies – has not beenconsidered in the analyses, despite the fact thatseveral of these texts did refer to the relationsbetween work and women’s condition.

Another consideration springs from theabove: that that 1990s were the scenario of theincrease in the production of works around themajor axes presented here.

The 1990s: the Brazilian contextand the European influences

One can not understand the trajectoriesof the educational research, insofar as themovement towards the autobiographicalapproaches is concerned, without a fewobservations about the Brazilian context of the1990s, and also about the influences that comefrom abroad and reverberate here in that period.

A first point to be noted is that in Brazilthe discussions around the education ofteachers and their professionalization intensifiedin the period preceding the approval of the Lawof National Education Bases and Guidelines(LDBEN 9394/96), in which teachers andpedagogues began to be called professionals ofeducation (Art. 61 to 67). This emphasis wasnot, however, isolated. Indeed, it echoed a widermovement that emerged and spread widely,both in developed and developing countries.Latin America staged many reforms in the1990s, all, without exception, highlighting the

role of teachers in the construction of the newschool that was then coming into view.Although in Brazil the movement around theprofessionals in education started in the 1970s,we emphasize here the debates of the 1990sbecause we assume they contributed toheighten the interest for autobiographical andteacher life history approaches which, preciselyat that time, multiplied swiftly, as this surveydemonstrates.

Olinda Evangelista and Eneida Shiroma(2003) show that bodies such as the UnitedNations Children’s Fund - UNICEF – and theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization – UNESCO called attention tothe problems of teacher professionalization sincethe early 1990s, and that proposals on this werealready present in documents of the EconomyCommission for Latin America and the Caribbean– CEPAL – and of the Main Education Project forLatin America and the Caribbean – PROMEDLAC– also since the beginning of that decade. Theseauthors note that in 1993 professionalizationwas the central concept of the education reformdiscussed in that Project, next to discussionsabout the redefinitions of the profile andformation of teachers.

In their analysis of the works of ANPEd’sWorkgroup on Teacher Education in the 1995-2002 period, those authors observed that theuse of the phrase professionalization grewsignificantly in that period to refer

[…] to the person of the teacher, to theteaching practice, to the qualification of theteaching category, to qualities inherent tothe function, to professional re-qualification,to initial training, to continued education, tothe professional model, to the radical changeof teacher profile. (p. 27-28)

Among other considerations, they drawattention to the fact that the works analyzedwere based “on an international literature largelyof European and North American origin” (p. 31),without a dialogue with Latin America proper.

The context described by Evangelistaand Shiroma and the data they present explain,to a large extent, the emergence ofautobiographical studies in Brazil, as well asseveral of the features of its production. In fact,the access to texts published in Portugal anddistributed in Brazil collecting collaborationsfrom Portuguese, French, Swiss, and Italianauthors on theories and investigations aboutthe autobiographical method as amethodological and research resource was oneof the defining aspects of the scenario thattakes shape in the 1990s. The publication inPortugal in 1992 of Vida de professores[Teachers’ life] and Profissão professor[Profession teacher], two selections organizedby António Nóvoa (1995a; 1995b), hadenormous repercussion in Brazil. Theseselections had the participation of authors fromseveral countries - Ivor Goodson and PeterWoods from England; Miriam Ben-Pretz fromIsrael; José Gimeno Sacristán and José Manu-el Esteve from Spain; Daniel Hameline fromSwitzerland; Michäel Huberman from Canada;among others – who later became references tomany works in Brazil. Before that, in 1988,Nóvoa had organized with Mathias Fingeranother work, O método autobiográfico e aformação [The autobiographical method andthe formation] (1988), which had alreadyattracted much interest within the Portuguese-speaking universe, and had also reachedBrazilian researchers9.

The creation in 1994 of the FEUSP StudyGroup on Teaching, Memory, and Gender(GEDOMGE-FEUSP) also dates from that period.This group’s conceptions owe much to theworks spearheaded by Gaston Pineau, PierreDominicé and Marie-Christine Josso at theUniversity of Geneva10, which at that timealready constituted a wide network ofresearchers covering several countries – France,Italy, Canada, and Portugal, among others. As

9. Evangelista and Shiroma (2003) when commenting on the works of ANPEdobserve that António Nóvoa tops the list of the most cited authors with 23%.10. On this, see: Dominicé, 1988; 1990; Josso, 1988; Pineau, 1988.

coordinators of GEDOMGE, and following alongthe lines proposed by those researchers, weplaced the autobiographical method under adouble perspective: as a formation device, andas a research instrument11.

The conceptions of the group of Genevahad their roots in problems that emerged in thehuman sciences, especially by the late 20thcentury (Josso, 1999). What has been observedin the last 30 years is that the transformationsof the social model of this period areaccompanied by forms of socialization in whichthe processes of individualization andsubjectivation occupy an ever increasing space.The prominence of these forms of socializationis tied to social transformations that include thepassage from national, industrialized andcentralized societies to forms of society whosepolitical, social and economic bodies lose theircentral role, in which institutions no longerhave the same ability to integrate, and in which‘individuals’ are compelled to display more andmore initiative and autonomy, and to findwithin themselves the resources and strengthsfor their conduct.

It is within this context that the ‘questionof the subject’ comes back through the socialsciences after its demise in the 1960s and 1970s.In its comeback, it reenters the sociological sceneas a subject deprived of the essentialist andtimeless dimension attributed to it by the classicalphilosophy, but is now strongly immersed in asocio-historical reality, itself changeable andunstable. The sociological discipline can nowdevelop a theory of the ‘social actor’, constructionthe meaning of its experience and turning itselfinto the ‘subject’ of its action (Delory-Momberger,2003). According to Christine Delory-Momberger,life narratives will experience renewed interest inEurope around the mid 1970s. Oriented towardsthe professional fields, the biographical approachencourages works of critical sociology from thecompilation of life narratives that serve toestablish trajectories and professional paths. Inthe 1980s, the object of research moves from thegathering of information that helps to reconstitute

the practices of a single socio-professionalcategory to the consideration of the singularity ofthe narratives obtained and treated in themselves(Catani; Mazé, 1982). This evolution isaccompanied of a double reflection: that relatedto the status of life history and its value as ascientific document, and that which concernsitself with the report as object of the languageand with its dimension of self-creation andautopoietic practice (Le Grand; Pineau, 1993).

As part of this process, life histories alsoappear in the field of formation, which employsthem as existence-forming art (Pineau, 1996).The narrative is no longer regarded under theperspective of an ethno-sociological research,but as a field of experience and an instrumentof formative exploration. Delory-Momberger(2003) points out that it is necessary todistinguish among the research procedures,because from them will issue quite distinctresearch materials. According to her,

The autobiography and the verbal lifereport do not operate on the same level:the former is a solitary introspective activity,while the latter is carried out in interaction;it is a word addressed, observant of theeffects it produces on its addressee. (p. 5)

In similar fashion, Josso (1999)distinguishes life histories as ‘knowledge projects’from life histories ‘at the service of projects’. Inthe former case, the oral or written report triesto encompass the totality of life in its differentlevels, as well as in its duration, but in mostcases the latter case will happen, in which thehistory produced by the narrative is limited to anentry intended to supply useful material to aproject. In other words, if the intention is toproduce knowledge about a given theme orsituation using narratives (oral or written), workswill be produced which, placed under a new

11. nformation about the history of the creation of this study group can befound in Catani et al. (1997) and Bueno (1998). About the line followed bythe group, see Bueno et al. (1993); Sousa et al. (1996); Catani; Bueno;Sousa (2000); among others.

paradigm (that of the subject and rehabilitatedactor), are very distinct from the works wherethe autobiographical method is used as aninstrument of formation, and in which it operatesas project of global knowledge of the subject.

These aspects and differentiations as toconceptions and ways of putting theautobiographical method into action, by gaininggrowing support and becoming widespread inBrazil, acquired their own features in this country.It was surprising, however, to observe that,despite the fact that several of these Europeanauthors were at the origin of the motivations thatled so many researchers to develop works withautobiographies and life histories, the perspectiveof research/formation espoused by them had littleresonance in Brazil, as we shall see now.

The 1990s: growth, diversity,trends

The analysis of the material gatheredrelated to the 1990-2003 period was revealingnot just of a considerable growth in theresearches, but also of a significant diversificationof the modalities and uses of autobiographiesand life histories. These studies spread beyond thedomain of the socio-history of education – the

hallmark of the previous decade – to explore newthemes and to construct new objects. Suchdiversity and the more noticeable trends in thisproduction shall be examined in what follows.Before that, however, it was deemed important topresent a few quantitative indicators to offer ageneral view of the growth of the studies, and tohelp indicating the role played by the graduateprograms in this process.

Theses and dissertations: the role of the

graduate programs

The data collected from the CAPESTheses Database showed that the year of 1995represented a milestone in this movement ofgrowing adoption of studies with life histories.From a production oscillating between two andfour works per year between 1990 and 1994,there is a leap in 1995 to the mark of 14 works:10 master dissertations and 4 doctoral theses.This figure corresponds to almost twice thenumber of works produced during the fiveprevious years, as shown in Picture 1.

From that point on, with smalloscillations, the graduate researches making useof this approach increase their numbercontinuously, reaching the figure of 30 works in

the year 2003 alone. In the 1990-2003 period165 works were located, 128 master dissertationsand 37 doctoral theses presented to institutionsall over the country, including 21 federaluniversities, apart from state universities, PUCs(Pontifical Catholic Universities), and otherprivate institutions (Table 1). This figure wouldprobably be even larger if direct searches at thevarious universities libraries were conducted.

The University of São Paulo displayedthe largest number of studies (24), followed bythe Federal University of Santa Maria – UFSM– in Rio Grande do Sul (16 studies), and byPUC-SP (15 studies). Among the privateuniversities, the University of the City of SãoPaulo – UNICID – and the Methodist Universityof Piracicaba in São Paulo – UNIMEP – standout with six studies each12.

In the 1990s at FEUSP, Elza Nadai wasone of the pioneers in developing studies aboutteachers and their memories, working under aperspective that, derived from the oral history, wasclose to the studies with teachers’ life historiesthat were to multiply along that period. In 1990,under her supervision, Ricardo Ribeiro presentedhis master dissertation Inspeção e escola primá-ria em São Paulo: trabalho e memória [Caretakingand primary school in São Paulo: work andmemory], and in the following year Nadai herselfpresented her livre-docência14 thesis A educaçãocomo apostolado: história e reminiscências (SãoPaulo, 1930-1970) [Education as apostolate:histories and reminiscences] using what she calledrécit de vie (Nadai, 1991). In that work, in whichthe author combines several procedures andsources, a group of teachers of the old secondaryschool was studied through a wide array ofquestions – representations, memory, discourse,formation, school, society, and professionalization.Grounded on a number of authors – Paul Veyne,Le Goff, Bosi, Halbwachs, Thompson, M. Isaura P.Queiroz –, this work joins the history of theteaching profession, just as already included byDenice Catani (2000).

Also pioneering, albeit along verydifferent lines, is the work conducted by M.

Ignez Joffre Tanus in her thesis presented toFEUSP in 1992 entitled Mundividências – his-tória de vida de migrantes professores[Mundivoyances – the life history of migrantteachers]. Later published as a book (Tanus,2002), the work explores the worldviews, andthe subjectivation and identification processespresent in the profession, trying to understandthe imaginary and the reality of a group ofmigrant teachers, starting from two basicquestions: that of identity, and that of theconstruction of the notion of reality. Theauthor seizes the opportunity of the fieldworkto gather testimonies of the interviewees abouttheir life histories, realizing what we called a‘sensitive listening’ (Tanus, 2002).

These studies indicate not just themovement toward autobiographies and lifehistories that in the 1990s was beginning to takeshape, but also its diversification. Indeed, thatdecade will be characterized by the recourse to lifehistories and memories, whose uses extended waybeyond the limits of the socio-history of education,as we have already noted. There is then a searchto understand specificities of the action of groupsof professional teachers from various areas anddisciplines through the path of life histories asresearch procedures. Likewise, there is anexpansion of references to autobiographies andthe genre is then valued for its contribution to thecomprehension of specificities of the school life, ofthe exercise of the teaching profession, of theconstruction of representations and relations withthe school and knowledge, among others13. Andaspects like these are precisely those that will beunderlined by the texts of the period thatintroduce, through articles published in journals

12. An analysis of the data obtained from the CAPES Database waspresented to the International Symposium Writing Life. New approaches ofa theory of autobiography. São Paulo, University of São Paulo, FFLCH,September 2005. That work contains other tables that help to visualize thedistribution of studies among the Brazilian institutions (Bueno, 2005).13. On this, see the text by Denice Catani (1991) “Pedagogia e museificação”[Pedagogy and museumification], in which she explores the potentialities of thememorialistic work of Elias Canetti – A língua absolvida [The absolved language]– to the understanding of education, of formation, and of school life. See also theworks indicated in the next footnote, in which the use made of this work incourses and projects of teaching education is explained.

and books, the hypothesis of the recourse tomemory/life histories/autobiographies asprocedures of formation. By inserting themselves inan expressive international movement, noticeablethrough the educational production from France,Canada, Portugal and Switzerland, the texts thatdefend the formative character of life histories alsopresent themselves as sources for the under-standing of the peculiarities of formation andspecificities of the formal and informal educativesituations14. If a feature common to the textspublished in the 1990s can be identified, it may bethat of the effort to multiply the explicative/formative potential of memories/life histories/autobiographies. In this sense, the recourse tothem is invoked to allow the understanding of theprocess of change and development of teachers,producing a proliferation of interests brought aboutby the wave of life histories and their extension todiversified educative universes.

In fact, the ensemble of works analyzedhere revealed a considerable broadening ofautobiographical studies, characterized by awide range of themes and analysis perspectives,but also with some convergence. For example,studies trying to understand specificities of theaction of groups of professional teachers fromdifferent areas and periods were recurrent, asobserved in graduate studies, books, and articles.

Although they are scattered in theensemble, it was possible to identify somestudies with shared features, such as thosederived from oral histories, which are placed atthe intersection with the perspective of teachers’life histories. Several of these studies werepresented as graduate works at FEUSP, such asthe master dissertation and doctoral thesis byRicardo Ribeiro (1990 and 1996) – the formeron the activity of old school caretakers in the1930-1945 period, and the latter on old primaryschool teachers in the 1925-1945 period; ElenyMitrulis’ (1993) research, also on schoolcaretakers, but covering the beginning of theactivities of school supervisors; and on a morerecent period, the dissertations by Daiane Vieira(2002) and Elza Pino dos Santos (2003) – the

former on the activities of old school principals,men who developed their careers between 1950and 1980, and the latter on the work developedby primary teachers working in the 1960-1980period. Outside the sphere of graduate studies,there were other studies along these lines, asshowed in the book by Sanches (1999) –Educational supervision and the adolescent. Init, the author works with ten (oral) life historiesto understand the work of the educationalsupervisor, making use also of a narrative of herown experience during her undergraduate years.

In other studies, the activities of groupsof professionals were examined based on othercharacterizations, such as, for example that ofBlack or afro-descendant teachers (Rofino, 1996;Ribeiro, 2001), that of teacher who had beenpolitical activists (Dobbeck, 2000), and that oflay teachers (Rodrigues, 2001), among others.

Alongside this theme, others also provedto be recurrent, particularly among graduatestudies. Analysis of the abstracts showed, forinstance, that teachers from fundamentaleducation and from the areas of Literacy andMathematics were the focus of attention, whilein higher education the emphasis lay on Historyof Education, with an output of 25 studies.Although a significant portion of these workswere devoted to the study of the old NormalSchools, it was interesting to observe that thetheme of the gender issues did not receive theweight that could be expected. This happenednot just with respect to the issue, but also in thewhole group of studies, since only five of themindicated the use of the category of gender, twoof these in combination with the category ofethnicity, to exam the issue of the Black teacher.It is important to record that this theme isbecoming more noticeable in recent years, aswe shall discuss ahead in this text.

The theme of professional identitysurprised by its high recurrence, closely followed

14. These characteristics are typical of the studies developed by theresearchers from GEDOMGE-FEUSP. Among other studies, their theses oflivre-docência also dealt with autobiographies and life histories. See: Catani(1994), Bueno (1996), Sousa (2000) and Chamlian (2004).

by two other themes: teacher knowledges, andcontinuing education. This recurrence wasobserved mostly in the abstracts. Among thecomplete works selected, we note that of Car-men Lúcia Pérez (2002), presented to FEUSP,which used oral and written narratives. Thequestion of the construction of identity (as thetheme is more often described) appeared morefrequently in the works presented to PUC-SPamong the works selected for a full reading; butwhen considering the abstracts, this was a themeinvestigated in all institutions. Professionals fromthe most varied areas were studied under thisfocus, notably teachers. Some of the titlesappearing in the abstracts since 1995 serve togive the gist of this group of works: Memória eidentidade: a travessia de velhos professoresatravés de suas narrativas [Memory and identity:old teachers’ passage through their narratives];A professora alfabetizadora: caminhos edescaminhos na construção de uma identidade[The literacy teacher: tours and detours in theconstruction of an identity]; A representaçãoidentitária no professor de história: um estudocom depoimentos orais [The identitaryrepresentation in the History teacher: a studywith oral testimonies]; Identidade, culturas ememórias de ex-professores [Identity, cultures,and memories of former teachers];Autoformação, histórias de vida e construção deidentidades do/a educador/a [Self-formation, lifehistories, and construction of identities of theeducator]; Identidades musicais de alunas depedagogia: música, memória e mídia [Musicalidentities in female Pedagogy students: music,memory, and media]; Identidade do diretor daescola pública: compromisso com a transforma-ção do cotidiano escolar [The identity of thepublic school principal: commitment with thetransformation of the school daily life.].

Apart from teachers, interest was alsoobserved on the study of the identity of Blackteachers (Rofino, 1996), afro-descendants (Oli-veira, 2001)15, and of ageing retired teachers(Stano, 2001a)16. This theme was present in aseries of studies that look at the identitary

question from other angles. Such is the case ofthe researches that analyze the processes ofprofessional choice (Enge, 2004) and thoseinvestigating the formation paths. Some ofthese works are interested in examining the wayin which the professionals have becometeachers (Hage, 1997); others are concernedwith how they have ceased to be teachers, asin the case of the study by Flavinês Lapo(1999), who analyzed the professional lifehistories of teachers who had left teaching and/or the public school. Still under this perspective,another group of studies examines theconstruction of identities based on themeanings attributed by teachers to professionand the teaching work. A recent modality ofstudies, mostly master dissertations, followingthe theme of identity is one in which theauthors analyze their own professionaltrajectories. Mostly, they seek to understandhow they became the teachers they are – Arts,History, Biology, Special Education, Literacy17,among others. In the final section f this text,some additional comments will be made on theissue of identity and on this type of studies.

The books

The examination of the books reinforcedsome of these themes, but also brought othersup, especially because not all of them wereoriginally written as theses or dissertations.Several of the books resulted from projectsdeveloped by a research team, and in many ofthem the authors use narratives as raw materi-al for analysis, focusing the profession fromdiverse angles.

Selva Fonseca (1997) authors the bookSer professor no Brasil [Being a teacher in Brazil],

15. This work was presented to the Institute of Psychology of USP. At theANPEd, works on the theme of the identity of Black teachers increased afterthe creation of the Workgroup on Afro-Brazilian Studies and Education.Between 2002 and 2003 four studies were located with this focus.16. This doctoral work, supervised by Mere Abramowicz, was soon afterpublished as a book (Stano, 2001b).17. Two doctoral studies in this category were identified: Pereira (1997),and Warschauer (2000), presented to PUC-SP and USP, respectively.

making use of oral life histories through theangle of the individual history of the subjectsthat make and teach history. This made possibleto produce documents and interpretations inwhich the characters exhibit and attributedifferent meanings to their experiences, showinghow their productions and professional actionsare intimately related to their personal way ofbeing and living. The book by Geni Vasconce-los (2000) – Como me fiz professora [How Ibecame a teacher] – is a collection of articlesabout teachers’ life histories, some of themdealing with themes relative to the constructionof the professional identity, others based onnarratives of the teachers about the histories oftheir own formation. According to the organizer,the objective was to try to rescue the respect forthe teaching category, giving voice18 to teachers;and also to show that a teacher’s identity isweaved with many threads. In close proximity tothis work is a chapter by Cynthia de Souza(1998) “Fragmentos de histórias de vida e deformação de professors paulistas” [Fragmentsfrom life and formation histories of São Pauloteachers], in which she presents results of aresearch based on interviews with one hundredwomen belonging to urban middle class; herobjective was to analyze the choice of teachingas a profession through the recovery of aspectsof their family and professional memory.

The book Identidade do professor noenvelhecimento [Identity of the aging teacher](Stano, 2001b) selects the issue of identity withthe objective of investigating how the exerciseof a profession determines, collaborates andmarks the quality of the aging of teachers. Inthis sense, by listening to life histories ofretired teachers, it tries to capture what is left,what has determined their way of living the oldage, as a product of historical and culturalsingularities. Through the narratives, it waspossible to observe the correspondence assuredby the habitus between the before and theafter, because once the teacher is removed fromthe school and from the whole group ofassociated professionals, the set of practices

and ways incorporated during the professionalactivity is preserved. Teachers elaborate theiraging keeping their time of ‘being-teacher’through their contact with former/new pupils.When asked about their profession, theyanswer: I’m a retired teacher, thereby avoiding,according to the author, the ‘dissociation of theMe’ in retirement, and guaranteeing a teacher-like aging.

Under this view, the book by Isabel M.Bello (2002) Formação, professionalidade e prá-tica docente19 [Formation, professionalism andteaching practice] can complement that of RitaStano’s, investigating the teaching profession byusing the professional life cycles as a basis(Huberman, 1992). In it, she analyzes, from theviewpoint of the teachers, behaviors, aptitudes,attitudes and values necessary to the professionalformation through the life histories of threeteachers she interviewed. With that, she aimed atunderstanding the aspects of teacher formationand professionalization. From the standpoint ofthe life cycles, Bello focuses phases that anticipatethat presented by Stano (2001a, 2001b), whenteachers are no longer in the profession, but stillfeel and see themselves as teachers.

The issues of professionalization andformation were focused, through other lenses,in other books published in the periodanalyzed, some of them centering on thepedagogical practice of teachers with a view totheir formation, others on the self-knowledgeand knowledge about the teacher, theconstitution of their subjectivity and formation.

Under a Bakhtinian perspective, theissues of formation and professionalization wereinvestigated in two collections that resultedfrom a joint research on reading and writing ofteachers. One of them is Histórias de professo-res – leitura, escrita e pesquisa em educação[Teachers’ histories – reading, writing, andresearch in Education] by Sonia Kramer and

18. The phase was used by Ivor F. Goodson (1992) in the collection Vidasde professores [Teachers’ lives] (Nóvoa, 1992).19. Originally the work was presented as a master dissertation to UNIP– São Paulo University.

Solange Jobim e Souza (1996), and the otheris Narrativas de professoras: pesquisando leiturae escrita numa perspectiva sócio-histórica[Teachers’ narratives: researching reading andwriting under a socio-historical perspective] byM. Teresa de Freitas (1998). Kramer and Sou-za use life histories as an alternative to thestudies about the pedagogical practice,emphasizing the role of the active and creativesubject and the production, through narratives,of a knowledge that places itself at thecrossroads of several knowledges. The interviewis like a construction of intertexts, and thespeeches, more than answers, are a dialogicalaction through which the subject constructsand reconstructs meanings. Freitas (1998)investigates how teachers read, write, and howthey constructed this relation throughout theirlives. The group considered that the effects ofthe autobiographical method were noticeable,both for the one that narrates, as for theresearcher who, by reaping the interview,identifies with the researched20.

In close proximity to this theme is thebook by Ana Chrystina Mignot and M. TeresaSantos Cunha (2003) Práticas de memória do-cente [Practices of teachers’ memories], whosetexts focus on the writing of teachers, seekingto enrich the discussions about the practices ofteachers’ memories constructed on and aboutthe school. The work is organized in groups oftexts; the first group examines teachers’‘ordinary writing’ produced under the mostvaried pretexts, revealing the school as a spaceof valuation of the writing and of search forfreedom of expression21. The second group oftexts is dedicated to works that deal with theautobiographical writing of teachers who “havemade use of writing to register, demand,propose, resist, in short, to eternize their ownlives” (p. 13)22.

The work organized by M. Helena BarretoAbrahão (2001) – História e histórias de vida.Destacados educadores fazem a história daeducação rio-grandense [History and lifehistories. Eminent educators make the history of

education in Rio Grande] -, besides presentingthe life histories of twelve educators, brings“historical-social elements of the context ofinsertion of these histories as a whole […]” (p.29). According to António Nóvoa, who wrotethe preface, this book is not limited tobiographical records, because the authorssought contrasts to illuminate theirinterpretations, accepting that life history isalways a ‘construction’ in which the researcheralso takes place. The three categories thatserved as analytical matrix for the analysis andinterpretation of these life histories – formation,personal/professional life and construction ofidentity – constitute, according to him, “theprecise limits of a sensible interpretation” (p. 9).

Under the category of works that reportmainly experiences of research/formationmaking use of the autobiographical method,and that differ, in this sense, from the worksdescribed so far, only three works were found:the two collections organized by thecoordinators of the GEDOMGE-FEUSP:Docência, memória e gênero: estudos sobreformação [Teaching, memory and gender:studies on formation] (Catani et al., 1997) andA vida e o ofício dos professores: formaçãocontínua, autobiografia e pesquisa em colabo-ração [The life and work of teachers: continuedformation, autobiography and research incollaboration] (Bueno et al., 1998); and thebook Como nos tornamos professoras? [Howdo we become teachers?], by Roseli CaçãoFontana (2000), whose research is close to thatwork perspective.

20. On this theme, the thesis by M. Catarina Curi (2001) Memórias deleitura de professoras primárias no estado de São Paulo: uma histórialeitura contada por professoras [Memories of reading of primary teachersin the State of São Paulo: a reading history told by teachers] presented toPUC-SP should be noted.21. In a certain way, this thesis goes against the conclusions of Kramer,Souza (1996), who affirm, based on their interviews, that the school seemsto act more on the formation of non-readers than on that of readers.22. The book organized by Celso Martinazzo (2000) - Histórias de vidade professores: formação, experiências e práticas [Teachers’ life histories:formation , experiences, and practices] – is another collection with historiesof memories, experiences and unforgettable moments in the lives of a groupof teachers, but it is not very analytic, mostly restricted to reporting.

The first two publications resulted froma project on continued education developedby the GEDOMGE between 1993 and 1997, inwhich female (and a few male) teachers fromthe public school system took part, conductinga study that, through the use ofautobiographical writing, had as its objective tomake teachers understand and incorporate theirown history. Teaching, memory and gender, asthe title of the group suggests, constituted thetriple focus of the study, which makes use ofthe memorialistic work of Elias Canetti A línguaabsolvida [The absolved language] as a pretextto the autobiographical production of theseteachers. In the chapter “História, memória eautobiografia na pesquisa educacional e naformação” [History, memory and autobiographyin educational research and formation] theauthors emphasize, on one side, the line ofinvestigation that the autobiographical methodbrought about in the experience of formation;on the other side, the potential represented bythe work of memory and counter-memory inthe field of the teaching profession. The othercollection, A vida e o ofício dos professores[The life and work of teachers], brings newresearch results, both from a theoretical pointof view and from that of the practices offormation developed by the group. The secondpart of the book includes the texts by eleventeachers who reached the conclusion of theexperience, as a more authentic way to makeclear the results of this project of research/formation and production of (self)knowledge bythe group.

The work by Roseli Cação Fontana(2000) Como nos tornamos professoras? [Howdo we become teachers?] derives from thetranscription of the discussions within a studyand research group that convened for two yearsas a group of researcher-teachers with thepurpose of investigating their own professionalcondition. The major investment of the studywas the analysis if the characteristics of theteaching work in its daily life. The life historiesappear in a complementary fashion to clarify

one of the aspects – the professional choice –present in the analysis of the constitution of theprofessional being. The reports of six teachersbetween the ages of 20 and 45 bring theopportunity to raise some of the main themespresent in the choice of the teachingprofession, such as: talent, vocation, joining/identification, learning, and learning with theother.

The journals

If in the 1990s we witnessed a period ofexpansion and increase of studies abouteducation that make use of life histories/autobiographies, as made clear by theproduction of graduate monographs and books(considering that most of the latter arecollections having the participation of severalauthors), this does not mean that the numberof articles in journals have followed suit. Thepaucity of studies with autobiographies/lifehistories published in journals, already notedwith respect to the previous decade, remainsvirtually unchanged, although some growth isobserved in absolute numbers.

Between 1990 and 1993, following thesame trend of the graduate studies and books,the production circulated by journals coverthemes that include issues related to differentsegments of the teaching category, but the toneof the efforts seems to be the exposition ofspecificities of the teaching profession andwork. Coinciding with the perspective showedin the 1990s, namely, of the interest in thesocio-historical studies about the teachingprofession, the trend to resort to memories/lifehistories seems to reassert itself in this domainby its potential of knowledge/research.

Works representative of the socio-historical studies of education appear in four ofthe published articles. Two of them, alreadyreferred to, were published in the early 1990s:that of Lea Paixão (1991) about old primaryschool teachers in Minas Gerais who workedbetween 1924 and 1938, published in the

Educação em Revista [Education in Review], andthat by Zeila Demartini and Fátima Antunes(1993) on primary teaching as a women’sprofession and a men’s career, published by theCadernos de Pesquisa [Research Fascicles].Apart from these, two other articles werelocated, published by Educação e Realidade[Education and Reality] and Educação em Re-vista [Education in Review], both in 1994. Theformer, by Rosa M. Silveira (1994), brings ananalysis of the book by Helena Morley MinhaVida de menina [My life as a girl], in which sheexamines the representation of the figure of theteacher in the late 19th century, andemphasizes aspects such as the ambivalenceprofessionalism/proletarianization, feminizationof the teaching profession, and teachingknowledges, among others, although the maininterest is the socio-historical conditions inwhich the literary work is produced. The otherarticle, by M. de Fátima Fortes (1994), exami-nes the characteristics of the rural school inMinas Gerais in the early 20th century (1918-1939) starting from the testimonies of twelveteachers of varied social origin, born in differentregions of the state between 1898 and 1920.These testimonies were selected from a group35 used in the study “Trajetórias escolares eprofissionais de professoras primárias mineirasque iniciaram carreira antes de 1940” [Schooland professional trajectories of primary teachersof Minas Gerais who started their careers before1940] coordinated by Lea Paixão.

Next to this trend, another line ofautobiographical studies appear in the journalsanalyzed, represented specifically by the worksof the GEDOMGE. These texts clarify theconceptions of the group in the perspective ofresearch/formation, dealt with under differentlights in each one of the three texts published.The first one, which has the same title as thegroup itself, was published in Psicologia USP[USP Psychology] in a special issue on memory(Bueno et al., 1993). In it, the authors seek toanalyze the theoretical foundations and thepractical potential of teaching education, based

on autobiographical interpretations and reportsof intellectual formation. They also deal withtheoretical questions related to individual andcollective memory, to the traditional processesof teacher education and to the gender studies,in particular on the feminine condition and theteaching profession, highlighting the fertility ofthe proposal to create a professional counter-memory through the production ofautobiographies and reports in the process ofteacher continued education. In the secondtext - “Memória e autobiografia: formação demulheres e formação de professoras” [Memoryand autobiography: women formation andfemale teacher formation] (Sousa et al., 1996)– published in Revista Brasileira de Educação[Brazilian Journal of Education], the analysescover the specificities, constitution andrecovery of individual memory and femininememory, trying to examine the vestiges andconfigurations of these specificities in thenarratives of female teachers about their lifeexperiences. From this point, some newpossibilities are put forward about thepedagogical relations and processes of schoolformation. In “O amor dos começos: por umahistória das relações com a escola” [The love ofthe beginning: for a history of the relations withthe school] (Catani; Bueno; Sousa, 2000),published in Cadernos de Pesquisa [ResearchFascicles], the author attempt to discuss andclarify, also based on written autobiographicalnarratives, the peculiarities of the relations thatthe individuals (men and women, pupils andteachers) keep with the school and with thevarious disciplines, and also the meanings ofthese relations in histories of schooling and inthe formation of teachers’ identities. Theobjective, as in the previous texts, is to proposenew modalities of formation that stimulatedispositions favorable to knowledge.

Another theme, based on studies withlife histories, that was also present in thejournals had as its focus the reading andwriting of teachers. Two of these articles werepublished by Sônia Kramer, a researcher from

the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio deJaneiro – PUC-RJ -, following the line she hasbeen developing since 1993 based on thetheories of Walter Benjamin and Bakhtin, asalready described with respect to the bookHistórias de professores: leitura, escrita e pes-quisa em educação [Teachers’ histories: reading,writing and research in education] (Kramer;Souza, 1996). The article that appeared in Ca-dernos de Pesquisa [Research Fascicles] tries toanalyze reading and writing experiences ofteachers, constructed throughout their workingand life histories, examining the process ofconstruction of knowledge to understand howtheir relation with writing was constructed, andin what way this relation influences theirschool practice (Kramer, 1999). In the next text,which appeared in Educação em Revista[Education in Review], the author presents asynthesis of the production of her researchgroup, taking up again the theme aroundwhich the group articulated during the 1990s(Kramer, 2000). A little earlier, in 1998, thissame journal published an article by AntonioAugusto Batista (1998), a researcher fromUFMG. The text deals with the relations ofteachers of Portuguese with reading, and wasbased on studies of sociology of education, offamily, and of cultural practices. In it, theauthor analyzes teachers’ reading practices,drawing from data collected by a variety ofinstruments, among which the remembranceswritten down by teachers about their ownprocess of formation as readers.

The issue of identity, so recurrent in thegraduate studies and books, appeared injournals in a limited fashion. Only three articlescould be located: one of them in the RevistaBrasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos [BrazilianJournal of Pedagogical Studies]; another inEducação em Revista [Education in Review];and the third in Revista Brasileira de Educação[Brazilian Journal of Education]. Lea Paixão(1995), in her article “Cátedra e hegemonia daprática docente na Faculdade de Medicina daUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais” [Chair

and hegemony in the teaching practice at theFaculty of Medicine of the Federal University ofMinas Gerais], examines the social identity ofbiologists on the basis of testimonies fromteachers, former teachers, and former students,showing the conflicts and tensions that combi-ne in the emergence and institutionalization ofBiology as an academic discipline in thesyllabus of that school of Medicine. In thesecond text, Anna Maria Caldeira (2000) usesfragments of the life history of a teacher ofrural origin who taught in a public school ofBarcelona as a resource to understand theprocess of constitution of her identity. Thehistory was collected within an ethnographicstudy, in which the researcher focuses on theteacher’s pedagogical practice. Considering thecontexts in which this identity is built, sheshows that its constitutive traits wereconstructed and reconstructed along theteacher’s professionalization, from the momentshe chose her profession and engaged in initialtraining to her professional insertion andpractice. Based on this study, Caldeira statesthat the construction of identity cannot be seenas an atemporal, permanent and stable process.The third text, which appeared in Revista Bra-sileira de Educação [Brazilian Journal ofEducation], is authored by Isabel Lelis (2001).The theme is the social identity of the teachingcategory, whose analysis is made based on lifehistories of teachers from Rio de Janeiro whoworked in public and private fundamentalschools. Using the narratives, Lelis analyzed thesocial and instructional trajectories of theteachers, considering various aspects, amongwhich their families and social identities, therhetoric of the mission of priesthood andvocation, and the questions of gender as animportant category to understand the entryinto the profession (which must be articulatedwith social class, ethnicity and generation).

Of an eminently theoretical-methodo-logical character, and dealing with life historiesand autobiographies, two articles were publishedby Educação e Pesquisa [Education and Research]

in 1999 and 2002. The first of these articles is byMarie-Christine Josso (1999), a researcher of theUniversity of Geneva, who offers a wide view ofthe European and international scene of authorsworking in this field, in an exposition that isbased on her own trajectory toward life histories.In it, Josso highlights “life histories as a project oflearning thematic biographical perspectives asapplied to specific projects”. The other article alsogives a general view of the various uses that theautobiographical and life history studies werehaving in 1990s based on collections organized byNóvoa (1992a and 1992b) and Goodson (1992).

The theme of teacher profession andprofessionalization appeared in just two articles.Derived from a research that investigatedteacher dropout from public schools in SãoPaulo in the period between 1990 and 1995,both studies are based on the professional lifehistories of sixteen teachers, and examine theissue of quitting the profession and thedisenchantment of the teachers with the publicschool under two aspects. The first text,published in Psicologia USP [USP Psychology],examines the links and ruptures with theteaching work based on considerations aboutthe meaning of work from social, psychological,and personal viewpoints (Lapo; Bueno, 2002).In the other article, which appeared in theCadernos de Pesquisa [Research Fascicles], thefocus is on the trajectories and circumstancesthat led the group of teachers under study toleave the public school and/or the teachingprofession. By analyzing the stages thatcharacterize the process of dropping out, theinvestigations call attention to the stress andburnout that beset teachers in such processes(Lapo; Bueno, 2003).

A single text examines the professionaldevelopment of the teacher, a theme hitherto notidentified in other studies. Published in the Revis-ta Brasileira de Educação [Brazilian Journal ofEducation], the article makes use of the life historyof a Mathematics teacher, as a researchmethodology, to identify the perceptions ofteachers about the changes that took place in their

thinking and/or practice throughout the years,focusing also on their perceptions aboutexperiences and/or challenges that might haveinfluenced them in these changes (Polettini, 1998).

Finally, three texts should be mentionedthat deal with assorted themes, and in which lifehistories or biographical narratives were usedonly marginally. One of them appeared in RevistaBrasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos [BrazilianJournal of Pedagogical Studies], another in theCadernos de Pesquisa [Research Fascicles], andthe third in Educação e Realidade [Educationand Reality], and their respective authorsexamined the following themes: Yolanda Lôbo(1996) examines the life and formation trajectoryof Cecília Meireles, with emphasis on her thesis“O espírito vitorioso” [The victorious spirit],presented as part of the examination to theNormal School of the Federal District; M. IsabelCunha (1996) dealt with innovative teachingexperiences of higher education teachers, usingtestimonies and emphasizing their systems ofvalue, representations and cultural symbols,including those of an affective nature; and NádiaSouza (2000) discussed the body-identityrepresentations under a Foucaultian perspective.In her research, this author uses, among otherstrategies, photos and narratives of Biologyteachers to induce them to speak about thepractices experienced in their families and theirimplications to the production of their body-identities. It is relevant to notice the points ofcontact between this study and the dissertationby Gercina Santana Novaes (1995) O corpo daaprendizagem: um estudo sobre representaçõesde corpo de professoras da pré-escola [Thebody of learning: a study about bodyrepresentations of preschool teachers], in whichthe author investigates, within an ethnographicstudy combined with memories, the bodyrepresentations of preschool teachers, with thepurpose of analyzing the meanings of theserepresentations to the pedagogical actionsdeveloped in the classroom, as well as ofsearching for the movements of constitution and(re)production of these representations.

Final considerations

The examination conducted in thissurvey, covering the use of autobiographiesand life histories in investigations on teachereducation and teaching profession, hasafforded some conclusions. The first, andcertainly the most relevant, is that theintensification of the use of thesemethodologies in Brazil, particularly since the1990s, contributed to renovate the educationalresearch in several aspects, notably with respectto the research and teacher formation, raisingthe interest for new questions and themes,such as those configured in the studies aboutprofession, professionalization, and teacheridentities. Although the main features of theacademic production analyzed here have beenpointed out along the text, some of them willbe resumed here to allow us to comment on afew missing aspects, based on which we wouldlike to offer suggestions for future studies inthe area.

The fact that we have worked withseveral sources has precluded in-depthanalyses, but on the other hand has favored aseries of aspects. Firstly, the fact of affording aview simultaneously quantitative and qualitativeof the works, allowing the identification of thespreading of the studies through regions anduniversities of the country, the growth alongthe years, and the characteristics and diversityof the works, from which it was possible toobserve the main trait: the huge dispersion ofthis production. It also made possible to seethat there was an unbalance in the forms ofpublication and circulation of the researches.Considering the number of works presented tograduate programs and congresses23 in thisperiod, it results that only a fraction of thesehave been published in books, mostly incollections and, more sparsely, as articles injournals. Observing that many of the books,chapters of books and articles resulted from thework of research groups, and not from thesesand dissertations, it becomes even clearer that

the works generated by the graduate programshad only a restricted circulation.

This fact will perhaps account for anotherfeature of the works analyzed: the almost com-plete absence of dialogue between theresearches and the production of the area, whichin many cases do not acknowledge the worksproduced in the researcher’s own institution.Because of that, it was not surprising to see thatmost works make no reference to projects onteacher formation and professionalization, whichhave been developed nationally andinternationally in neighboring countries. To putteachers at the center of the debate was not anidea that emerged here by accident, for it hasbeen contained for more than a decade in thereforms that proposed the redefinition of theirprofile and the construction of ‘a new teacher’.Authors in several countries have even suggesteda ‘reinvention of the teaching profession24’.Certainly, all this turns the expectations aboutthis professional even bigger. Therefore,autobiographies should not be taken withoutproper care, as if they were a panacea that could,on their own, transform teachers and schools.

What is meant by this is that it is notenough to dialogue with works that have used thesame methodological approaches. It is necessary toexchange ideas with the productions from othercontexts, going beyond the theorists of Europe andNorth America. Due to the similarities among theeducational problems and the ongoing reforms incountries of Latin America and the Caribbean, it isdesirable that the questions proposed here are alsoreferenced to them. Even more so when we workwith memories and narratives, and when we upholdthat autobiographies afford the individual anincorporation of his/her history that is not just in-dividual, but also collective. We could ask ourselves‘What collective history is this, today?’ Maybe thisis one fruitful way ahead to discuss andproblematize the question of identities/alterities.

23. Based on the assessment made in 2002 (Bueno; Catani, 2002).24. Mello; Rego (2004), when referring to this discourse, mentionedauthors from various countries – Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France– among those that reiterate and subscribe to such ideas.

Another feature that stands out from thescrutiny of the works is the conceptualimprecision. Notwithstanding many authorsclarifying the meaning of the terms employed, theterminological imprecision persists in theacademic production as a whole, and that for twointerrelated reasons: first, due to the enormousdiversity of expressions employed, many of themused synonymously, as if there was consensusabout them25; then, for the fact that there is atacit disregard for the history itself of the lifehistories, its origins, its progresses and retreats,and also for the conceptions and uses made ofthem today in different fields – History, Sociology,Anthropology, Psychology, Literature, amongothers26. It results that the assumptions of theperspectives adopted in the works are not alwaysexplicit, quite the opposite, they are oftenambiguous and even contradictory. Contributes tothis the looseness with which the theoreticalappropriations are often made, without the propercare that the transport of concepts from one areato another requires. Thus, if on one hand we canaccept that this freedom indicates a revival of thearea of Education, which cannot survive or growwithout conceptual borrowings, on the otherhand it must be seen as an alert against misuseand carelessness, which end up weakening thearea and reducing the reliability and value of theresults of studies.

Along the same lines, we must include anadditional question to the forms of incorporationof the autobiographical procedures in regard tothe first person narratives – frequent in theses anddissertations -, often used to illustrate, exemplify,tell, and offer testimonies about the formationand professional trajectories of teachers. Theseworks, while having the merit of echoing thevoices of the subjects, actors of the educationalfield, end up constituting an inventory of isolatedcases, open to endless interpretations, waiting forthe readers to come by themselves to the alreadyclassic statement by Ferrarotti that:

[…] our social system is entirely found ineach one of our acts, in each one of our

dreams, delusions, works, behaviors. Andthe history of this system is entirelycontained within the history of our indivi-dual life. (1988, p. 26)

Perhaps, going deeper into theseaspects, particularly into the conceptualappropriations and a more precise definition ofthe theoretical frameworks and researchprocedures pertaining to the field ofautobiographies and life histories, can help topoint the ways ahead, to proceed withappropriations without turning it into areinvention of the authors at each moment,turning potentialities into limitations. This isnot a simple issue, especially when we want touphold that first person narratives are fruitfulmodalities for education and formation.

Another observation that could be madehere is that, paradoxically, – and despite thehuge diversity of uses that the works display –what is seen is the prevalence of s single model,characterized almost exclusively by the idea oflife histories ‘at the service of projects’, to useChristine Josso’s (1999) expression. In theresearch/formation modality, besides our ownworks carried out along the lines of the‘autobiographical process in formation’(Dominicé, 1990; Josso, 1988; 1991), we haveidentified only one other work close to thiscategory: the book by Roseli Cação Fontana(2000) Como nos tornamos professoras? [How

25. We would like to refer the reader to the text by Gaston Pineau, inwhich he builds a map of expressions used by different authors, taking asan entry point the word ‘life’ (biography, autobiography etc). His list does notinclude, therefore, many expressions and denominations that we found inthe works analyzed in the present survey.26. See, for example, the lists of works and authors that appear at the endof two compilations: that of Olga von Simson (1988) Experimentos comhistórias de vida [Experiments with life histories], and that organized byNóvoa and Finger (1988) O método autobiográfico e a formação [Theautobiographical method and the formation]. Two other works should bementioned here, in which the authors offer valuable contributions about theconceptual work indicated here by describing their theoretical trajectoriesin the work with life histories: “História de vida e projeto: a história de vidacomo projeto e as ‘histórias de vida’ a serviço de projetos” [Life history andproject: life history as a project and the ‘life histories´at the service ofprojects], by Christine Josso (1999), and “Autobiografias, pesquisa histó-r ico-soc io lóg ica e educação” [Autob iograph ies, h is tor ica l-sociologicalresearch, and education], by Zeila Demartini (2005).

do we become teachers?]. Thus, surprisingly, themodel of educative biographies developed by thegroup of Geneva – whose ideas inspired so manyworks with life histories in Brazil – did notflourished amongst us. And, however, the greatpotential of the autobiographical studies residesprecisely in their explicative/formative power,apart from constituting sources for theunderstanding of the peculiarities of formationand specificities of educative situations. In whatconcerns the graduate production, this criticismmust be relativized by the consideration of theshort time available to conduct the courses,added to the lack of experience of most youngresearchers, which do not give reason for muchmethodological daring.

Concerning the issue of identity, havingin mind that it was the most recurrent theme inthe works, we would like to make a fewcomments. The identitary question is certainlyone of the outstanding themes of out times.For this reason, we can say that this largenumber of works is part of a trend that has beenintensifying for more than a decade in othercountries, particularly in francophone contexts,in which the notion of identity has beenadopted by those who want to understand, inthe field of Education and Formation, howindividual and collective changes take place.Jean-Marie Barbier (1996) considers that thenotion of identity is a paradigm particularlyuseful to think and follow the social mutationsand recompositions that happen these days.However, as its uses have been too varied and,besides, often followed by theoretical andepistemological imprecision, the notion ofidentity, according to him, has generated muchconfusion, to the point of putting its fecundityinto question. That is why it becomesnecessary and important to examine theoreticaland conceptual aspects involved in thiscategory. Considering these aspects andthinking in future works, some questions can beput: what makes teachers ask themselves somuch about teacher identity, about their ownidentity? Would these questions be evidence of

a crisis in the profession, to which life historiesseem to offer some hope? Why would beteachers asking so recurrently about theirchoices, their place, and the meanings they findin the profession? Could it be a search for the(re)invention of themselves? In such case, withwhich theoretical instruments?

Along the same lines, we believe that it isworth calling attention to a modality of researchthat has become frequent in the last years: thestudy by the researcher of his/her life history. In thecase of the works analyzed in the present survey,mostly of the master level (with the two exceptionsalready mentioned), what could be observed wasthat this modality seems to have been used moreto facilitate producing a work in a short space oftime than to a theoretical choice based ontheoretical convictions and clear assumptions.Having been involved in an autobiographicalprocess, these works certainly brought dividends totheir authors, but from an academic point of viewfew of them have anything to say. It is not,therefore, the case of denying the possibilities orthe wealth that such works can bring, but ofinsisting on the need of dealing with theoreticalinstruments that only intellectual maturity can offer.Some exemplary cases can be mentioned:Cheminer vers soi [Trudge toward oneself], thethesis by Christine Josso later published as a book(Josso, 1991), and Ensaios de ego-história [Essaysof ego-history], a collection of texts by varioushistoriographers – Agulhon, Chaunu, Duby,Girardet, Le Goff, Perrot and Rémond – which,encouraged by Pierre Nora, were led to narrate theirown histories and their own trajectories using tothat end the theoretical resources with which theyhad studied and analyzed other people’s histories(Agulhon et al., 1989). These are counterpointsperhaps too contrasting, but necessary to speak ofthe exigencies of a work of this nature.

These were some of the reflections thatseemed to us to be worth pointing out in thesefinal considerations, more within a spirit ofopenness to new analyses than of closure orultimate conclusions. The intention here was toadd new elements about the ways to conceive

and utilize the methodologies under study. In thissense, it is not too much to reaffirm once more,and despite the observed gaps, that the intenseuse made of autobiographies and life historiesbrought important data to the debate anddeepening of questions about the educationalresearch with regard to teacher formation andteaching profession, the focus of analysis of this

survey. The same cannot be said about genderissue which, contrary to the significant presenceit had in the same period in other areas, did notappear as an important focus in the studies withautobiographies and life histories. This is,therefore, another indication we would like toregister, among others that deserve to be carriedfurther and explored in future studies.

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Recebido em 12.05.06

Modificado em 22.05.06

Aprovado em 26.06.06

Belmira Oliveira Bueno é professora titular da faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo. Foi professora visitanteda Unviersity of North Carlina at Chapel Hill (EUA), desenvolve pesquisas na área de formação de professores e atualmente atuacomo co-editora do International Handbook of Urban Education (EUA), responsável pela seção da América Latina.

Helena Coharik Chamlian é professora livre-docente da FE-USP. Desenvolve pesquisas na área de formação de professores,espcialmente no campo de formação contínua. Coordenou, recentemente Projeto de cooperação Internacional (CAPES-COFECUB) em colaboração com Jean Biarnés da Universidade Paris 13. Realiza no momento pesquisa-formação usandoprocedimentos autobiográficos com futuros professores universitários.

Cynthia Pereira de Souza é formada em Pedagogia pela FE-USP. Nessa mesma instituição obteve seus graus de Mestra eDoutora em Educação e, desde 2000, é professora associada (Livre-docente), título obtido em concurso público. Seus temasde pesquisa estão ligados a uma história das relações sociais de gênero no campo da educação; às investigações sobrememória, relatos autobiográficos e formação continuada de professores e, mais recentemente, aos estudos sócio-histórico-comparados sobre educação primária. E-mail: cypsousa@gmail.com.

Denise Catani é professora titular e coordenadora do Programa de Pós-graduação da Faculdade de Educação da USP.Pesquisadora do CNPq e autora de trabalhos acerca de história da educação brasileira e formação de professores. Temdesenvolvidos estudos acerca das questões de memória, autobiografia e formação e também acerca da história da educaçãocomparada Brasil-Portugal. E-mail: dbcat@usp.br