Internship in teacher education in Brazil: fractured curricula

Abstract

Considering the association between theories and practices as a teacher education basic principle, this paper focuses on a private higher education institution in Federal District, Brazil, in particular on two groups: students at the end of their programs and graduates. By means of questionnaires, it was found that curricula had three significant fractures, i.e., between theories and practices, basic and higher education, and idealized reality and actual basic education reality. As a result, both students and teachers suffered from the so-called reality shock. Curricula followed the collection type of educational code, according to Bernstein. Their components were hardly connected, as well as they built a barrier between academic knowledge and day to day school functioning. As students enrolled in teacher education programs looked for cheaper and less attractive options, they came more often from lower sociocultural levels. Therefore, the integrated code would be more favourable to their academic achievement. On the contrary, teachers tended to have relatively lower performance, so reproducing the reproduction of under privilege to their students, in a vicious circle.