CHANGES IN PIBID AND PRE-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING: CHAT-BASED MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

Abstract

In this article we analyze some recent changes imposed on the Pre-service Teacher
Training Scholarship Program (Programa de Bolsa de Iniciação à Docência -PIBID) which has been in
place in Brazil since 2007. In the last decade, the Program has fulfilled an important task of better
preparing undergraduates for the beginning of their teaching career. However, the last public note in
2018 significantly altered the structure of the Program, changing its formative potential. Based on the
Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we analyze part of the activities carried out under the PIBID Physics
subproject of a federal university. The analysis was done on three levels. At the micro level, we analyze
the short-term social situations that have enhanced the preparation for the beginning of the
undergraduate students’ teaching career on this subproject. At the mid-level we analyze the activity system
of this subproject, highlighting the elements that contributed the most and which were limited in the
training of future teachers. At the macro level we investigate how changes in PIBID, accompanied by
the launch of the Pedagogical Residency Program, affected the activity system of PIBID. Our results
indicate that these changes may lead to the detachment of PIBID from its identity as an initiation in
teaching, undermining the efficiency of tutoring, diminishing the heterogeneity of the subproject subjects,
and weakening the partnerships between universities and schools. In addition, these changes do not
reduce the limitations of this program and do not expand the possibilities of future teachers to experience
the various elementsthatcharacterizethebeginningofteaching.