Supervised Internship in the Training of English as a Foreign Language Teachers: A Comparison Between Two Universities in Southern Brazil

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Student achievement in China and Brazil

Proposal

This is a qualitative exploratory study whose purpose is to analyze and compare the curriculum of the supervised internship of the undergraduate English teachers training courses in two universities located in Southern Brazil. We based our analysis in Ball's Policy Cycle approach (BALL, 1994; BOWE, BALL & GOLD, 1992) in order to understand how the official document of the Ministry of Education (henceforth MEC) is interpreted in the context of practice in the two universities. The supervised internship, as indicated in ordinance CNE/CP no. 21/2001, is not an optional activity, being a condition for obtaining the teaching license. Therefore, the supervised internship is institutionalized and is a compulsory curricular component that establishes a dialogue between the theory learnt in the teacher training course and the practice in regular basic education schools. By means of the Ordinance no. 21/2001, the National Education Council (henceforth CNE) establishes a new workload for the supervised internship, which can not be less than 400 hours. The ordinance CNE/CP no. 1/2002 defines that the supervised internship must be placed in a basic education school and developed from the second half of the course on. In addition, the activities of the student-trainee must be supervised by an already licensed teacher. According to CNE/CP no. 21/2001, one of the objectives of the supervised internship is to offer the future graduate a knowledge of the real in a work situation.This study included two higher education institutions with active and accredited registration with MEC. Although there is a difference between the legal nature of the two universities, they were selected due to the similarity of factors concerning the English internship curricular component, such as the resemblance between their political-pedagogical projects and the syllabus of the curricular components; and the fact that both institutions include the implementation of the internship in basic education. The data include the institutional English program curricular documents of both universities, and a report based on our experience as internship supervisors. The documents comprise the last political-pedagogical project available of each of the English programs and the syllabuses of their internship courses. The analysis considered the following aspects: (i) the academic load of the internship curricular components; (ii) the academic load of the teaching practices (observation and teaching practice itself); (iii) the role of the supervisor professor; (iv) the organization and frequency of the guidance meetings; and (v) the final report of the internships. Concerning the social and geographical context of the institutions as well as their legal nature, University A is a public institution located in the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. On the other hand, university B is a private community institution - a nonprofit university, whose campus is in a heartland of the same state. Regarding the academic load of the supervised internships, although the current legislation states it, in our analysis we identified that the interpretation of the law varies according to the institution. While, in the public university, the internship is divided into two curricular components and its academic load comprises 180 hours; in the private institution, the internship is divided in three curricular components, totalizing 240 hours. Besides, we identified that in University A, the documents do not determine the amount of time addressed to observation. Whereas, in University B, the student-trainees must observe three classes in a basic education school - two EFL classes and one class of any other curricular component. There is also a discrepancy concerning the teaching practice itself - while in the public institution student-trainees have to teach forty hours in two different groups; in the private institution, this differs depending on whether the internship is done alone or in pairs and it also varies depending on the level of education. On the other hand, our analysis reveals similarities in the role of the supervisor professor in both institutions. Among their obligations we can mention monitor, supervise and evaluate the development of the student-trainee’s on-the-job activities. Concerning the guidance meetings between trainees and supervisor professors, in the public university, student-trainees have face-to-face classes every week and a time of the class is dedicated to the guidance, in addition to online guidance during the week. In contrast, in the private university, the initial diagnostic and ongoing assessment of the student-trainees’ needs feed the planning of the guidance meetings, which may take place on a weekly or biweekly basis, either face-to-face or online. At last, our analysis also reveals that the final report differs: in the public institution, student-trainees write a final paper reporting the project they developed in the basic education school and they also have to present their teaching practice to their classmates. Differently, in the private institution, they are supposed to prepare a final report of the activities carried out, registering the activities developed and reflecting critically on them, and present their proposals to all other courses students and professors at a final seminar. As our analysis has shown, there is an educational public policy developed by MEC that regulates the supervised internship in Brazil. However, as we have seen from the comparison between the two universities, this official legal text is interpreted and recreated in the context of practice. Thus, the analysis demonstrates that with respect to the supervised internship, essentially, public policies gain meaning in the context of practice through the interpretation of the people to whom these political texts are addressed. Brazil is a large country marked by geographic, socioeconomic and cultural differences. Even in the same state, these diversity of regional features may be identified. Therefore, regional specificities should be taken into consideration in the interpretation of the Brazilian law in order to meet the contexts of practice needs and be effective in delivering appropriate teacher-training.

Authors

• Paula Cardoso, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

• Lívia Pretto Mottin, Univates