O enquadramento profissional do educador linguístico no ensino presencial e a distância sob a perspectiva da teoria holística da atividade

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how three Spanish language teachers working in face-to-face basic teaching and as teachers/tutors in distance learning in a in Spanish language degree course build their professional identity, considering the convergences and divergences between these two realities in which they act and how they stand before the various aspects of professional framework from the perspective of the Holistic Activity Theory (HAT). The research is qualitative. The generation of the corpus was performed by the action-research method, through questionnaires and interviews conducted in a virtual environment. As tools, we used Skype, closed group interactions on Facebook and face-to-face interactions guided by the perspective of focus groups and operative groups. Data selection was then performed by Ginzburg’s (2003) indiciary paradigm in order to indicate the way taken by the informants and the researcher to situate themselves in relation to roles and attributions in their professional teaching development. Finally, we made the analysis and interpretation of the data, based on the theoretical discussions focused on the following factors of parameterization of the professional teaching activity: attribution factors, mediating factors and control factors, proposed in the HTA, version 4.3, by Richter (2013) and aspects of professional representation of teachers, based on the theoretical assumptions of Luhmann (2009) and Richter (2010, 2013). The corpus of the research was generated in three phases. The first one focused on investigating the identity of teachers, their professional recognition and the use of technological resources. The aim was to make teachers: demonstrate their conceptions of what it is to be a teacher, their attributions, rights and duties; show what they perceived in relation to professional recognition from their relationship with students, colleagues, management teams, community and institutions to which they belong; report how the technological resources are used in teaching activity in the two working modalities in which they are inserted. In the second phase, carried out from the perspective of operative groups, they should explain how they develop their teaching activities in a foreign language in both work contexts, considering the complexity of the two systems of education and how they felt about it, as well as describe their relationship with the college professors in order to receive theoretical and practical support in face-to-face formation courses. In the third phase, theoretical support was first made available for reading and reflection and, through focus groups, the themes that involved professional fragmentation and the conflicts generated as a result of this fragmentation, as well as the strategies of resilience to face them were discussed. The reflections were directed to relate this theoretical contribution to the concepts of regulated and unregulated professions that suppose autopoietic and allopoietic systems, which result in endogenous and exogenous discourses. At the end of the research, it can be said that the teachers show little awareness of the professional fragmentation which they are subjected to as language educators. They show negative feelings in various aspects of their profession and few demonstrations of resilience towards them. The origin of this context is related to the fact that the educators are not yet aware that the professional framework, which can be achieved through the Co-responsible Professional Development (CPD), proposed by the HTA in Richter (2015), can become the factor of construction and institutionalization of their professional identity, as well as promote resilience factors desired to adapt or overcome the adversities they face.