Memories and stories of a teacher in search of her professional identity

Abstract

The present article is the substrate of an ongoing investigation, which follows the paths of narrative research, developed collectively within the scope of the Research Group “Profissão Docente: formação, identidade, representações e saberes”. Aiming to understand the constituent characteristics of the identity and professionalism of teachers throughout their career, involving aspects of training and professional development at different levels of education, the production of data has been carried out using letters. In this context, the discussion presented here deals with the construction of professional identity for teaching from the narrative of a professional who identifies with acting at the literacy level, but due to the concrete and objective conditions of her personal and professional trajectory, works in Higher Education. The reflections allowed by the life story taken as a motto lead us to affirm that the non-valuation of the elementary school teacher is still a problem to be overcome so that the identity of this professional is strengthened, as well as the literacy has - and maintains in acting - well- qualified teachers for this task. Another highlight is the understanding of socialization in the school environment as a significant space for teaching, which has important implications for training proposals, for teaching and more specifically for acting as a literacy teacher.