Professional Development of History Teachers: The contributions of ProfHistória
Teacher training. Professional development of history teachers. ProfHistória.
ProfHistória is a professional Master's degree program in History Education, offered nationally as a continuing education program for teachers, at postgraduate level, for history teachers working in initial education (primary and secondary education) in Brazil. The aim of this doctoral research is to understand the process of professional development of history teachers in Brazil, as perceived by graduates of the Professional Master's Degree in History Education (ProfHistória), based on their training experience in the program. The research methodology was based on a qualitative approach and classified as a case study. The techniques and instruments used to collect data were document analysis, a questionnaire and a focus group with ProfHistória graduates. The data generated in the focus group was analyzed and interpreted using thematic-categorical content analysis. The research results show that ProfHistória is a continuing education program for teachers that contributes to teacher professional development, due to the fact that its training design is aimed at professional improvement and upskilling and at training history teachers/researchers as professionals that are qualified to teach history, as well as strengthening the teacher identity of its graduates and valuing teachers’ work and career. The conclusion is that ProfHistória is a postgraduate program aimed at the continuing education of primary and secondary education history teachers, which focuses on the training of teacherresearchers. It is closely associated with the interests and needs of initial education teachers and involves training centered on the school environment, curricular innovation in history education and teachers’ career development.