Interpretive analisys of perceptions about the use of Lesson Study in initial and continuing education of English teachers in the Amazon
Perceptions. Lesson Study. Undergraduate students.
Researches with Lesson Study (LS) in a global range have shown positive results regarding initial and continuing professional development of teachers. However, those researches are addressed in their majority in the area of mathematics, with just a few studies that investigate its benefits in other áreas, like language teaching. Nevertheless, two recent researches dealt with the impacts of LS utilization by teachers and student-teachers, in the Amazon. This case study of a qualitative nature has made use of a phenomenological approach in order to categorize and analyse the perceptions of two reserachers, four student-teachers and three teachers about their experiments in those two researches in that region. What prompts this investigation is the status of disrepute that English teaching has gained before society, throughout its history in the public school, where graduate teachers formed relentlessly have been repeating unsuccessful practices historically. Aiming to base theoretically the study, some works will be discussed, the ones that address teachers’ training issue, in general, and English teacher, specifically (NÓVOA, 2017; CORRÊA, 2018; LEFFA, 2012), as well as works that bring about positive or negative results, or (im)possibilities of using LS as a tool for teacher improvement (PONTE et al., 2012; ELLIOT, 2012). For gathering data, semistructured interviews were used, that were ellaborated according to these actions: a) reading of the dissertations of the two researchers-participants of the research - Lesson Study na formação inicial de professores: uma experiência com licenciandos de Letras/Inglês da Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará (SCHWADE, 2018) and Lesson Study: uma experiência com três professores de inglês da rede pública estadual de Santarém-PA (OLIVEIRA, 2018), and b) thematic analysis of recording transcriptions and field annotations from presentations of the two researchers, in a seminar, and master’s theses defenses. The interviews were analysed using content thematic analysis (GUEST; MACQUENN; EMILY, 2011). The analysis of the perceptions of the two researchers, student-teachers and in-service teachers might shed light on the (in)viability, possible benefits or difficulties regarding the use of this Japanese methodology as a tool for development of teachers to be and of professionals who already teach Englih in the Amazon. The research results – be they positive or negative – are expected to provide subsidies for professional development of English teachers in the Amazon.