WHAT HAS MADE ME WHO I AM?: (GEO)GRAPHIES OF ONESELF IN INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

The present article explores the construction of the teaching professional identity of Geography graduates from a state university in Paraná. Therefore, a bibliographic review was conducted concerning the teaching of Geography, teacher training, and (self)biographical research. The field research covers the adoption of the (self)biographical method, the research-training methodology, and the sources of the (self)biographical narratives of the graduates. These were noticed in dialogue with the theoretical frameworks from the dimensions: First Geography (life story), School Geography (school memories), Geography from the other (remarkable teachers), and Geographies under construction (self-project). Personal identity, as it turns out, is inseparable from professional identity. Thus, its leading references correspond to the basis of this field, and their memories of teaching Geography redefined in a markedly traditional and empiricist school, which may guide them to a self-project inspired by teacher models. It aims to build school geography different from that experienced as a student, that is, teaching that promotes the construction of geographical knowledge in a critical-reflexive and critical way contextualized to the reality of the students. Therefore, it was showed that the teaching identity nourishes itself along the existential journey through the itineraries of personal life, training, and professional performance.