Egressos de educação superior: docentes que ensinam a língua portuguesa a nativos em outras línguas.

Abstract

This dissertation falls within the research line "Processes of Linguistic Organization and Social Identity" of the Graduate Program in Language Sciences at the Catholic University of Pernambuco. This research focuses on higher education graduates as participating subjects. Higher education, beyond preparing professionals to enter the job market, constitutes a space where theoretical thinking about ideas, positions, and perspectives should be critical, so as to propose alternatives for solving society's problems. In this sense, it was important to conduct studies about and with graduates, specifically in this Dissertation, those from teacher training programs, such as Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education Angola. Graduates from these programs, working as elementary school teachers, face the challenge of teaching Portuguese as a second language to students whose first language is different. The research question centers on understanding: how do graduates from the Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education programs at the Jean Piaget Polytechnic Institute of Benguela-Angola teach Portuguese to native speakers of other languages? To this end, the general objective is to analyze how graduates from the Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education programs at the Jean Piaget Polytechnic Institute of Benguela-Angola teach Portuguese to native speakers of other languages. The specific objectives were: to characterize the profile of graduates from the Jean Piaget Polytechnic Institute of Benguela-Angola; to identify and select graduates from the Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education programs at the Jean Piaget Polytechnic Institute of Benguela-Angola who work in Primary Education; to compare how graduates trained in Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education teach Portuguese in the Angolan context; and to identify the challenges in the process of teaching Portuguese when students have Umbundu (or another language) as their mother tongue. We conducted qualitative research, supplemented by quantitative research, to organize data from an online questionnaire sent to all graduates from 2015 to 2020 of the Jean Piaget Polytechnic Institute of Benguela-Angola with available contact information. The qualitative component involved semi-structured interviews with two graduates from each of the Portuguese and National Languages Teaching and Primary Education programs, who are currently working as teachers teaching Portuguese as a second language to students whose first language is different and who agreed to participate in the invitation issued in the quantitative questionnaire. From the analysis, five categories emerged: 1) Cultural diversity in schools; 2) Multilingualism: a strategy for teaching Portuguese; 3) Teacher training for teaching Portuguese to native speakers of other languages; 4) Influence of school infrastructure on teaching and learning processes; 5) Child labor: its impact on school performance. The results indicate that the linguistic diversity present in Angolan schools requires teachers to constantly adapt and adopt pedagogical strategies that value multilingualism. Despite challenges related to the lack of specific training, adequate teaching materials, and school infrastructure, teachers demonstrate a commitment to teaching quality and seek to develop innovative practices. The research revealed that most interviewed teachers adopt pedagogical strategies that value students' mother tongues and attempt to establish connections between them and Portuguese. However, the lack of resources and excessive workloads are obstacles that hinder the implementation of more effective practices. Additionally, the devaluation of teaching and the lack of recognition of the importance of bilingual education are challenges that need to be overcome. The results of this study highlight the need for public policies that invest in continuous teacher training, the production of adequate teaching materials, and the improvement of working conditions in schools. Valuing linguistic and cultural diversity is essential to ensure teaching quality and the inclusion of all students.