REVIEW ARTICLE
COSTA, Samantha de Andrade [1]
COSTA, Samantha de Andrade. Research in education: the importance of educating through research from the perspective of Pedro Demo. Revista Científica Multidisciplinar Núcleo do Conhecimento. Year 05, Ed. 06, Vol. 10, pp. 139-145. June 2020. ISSN: 2448-0959, Access link: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/education/research-in-education
ABSTRACT
Concerns about our behavior as educators and also the behavior of students in the teaching-learning process lead us to consider the relevance of research in education as a fundamental foundation that makes research an academic format for teaching and learning. to educate, aiming at qualitative and meaningful learning. This, therefore, is the central question that guides this study. In this context, we seek to emphasize, here, the relevance of Pedro Demo’s studies to the academic panorama, including because of his collaboration in the training of several other researchers, who, based on his works, support themselves for the understanding of the arduous task of building science. The general objective of this study is to understand the relevance of educating through research from the perspective of Pedro Demo. It is known that from this orientation, education through research will guide the paths towards a qualitative education. The methodology used in this study points to the use of the basic instrument: exploratory bibliographic research. The basic results demonstrate that it is necessary for educators to teach their students through research. Thus, learning is meaningful and leads them to discover new knowledge and awaken new knowledge.
Keywords: Research, education, teaching, learning, students.
1. INTRODUCTION
There are no studies without research, that is, without poring over books to find out if a certain hypothesis is true, or even to find or not the resolution in relation to a certain problematic situation. It is known how difficult it is to have a spirit imbued within the scope of research in everyday school life and in the extra-school context, which justifies the relevance of this study. Thus, the guiding question of this work aims to investigate the relevance of educating through research from the perspective of Pedro Demo. Educating is not an easy task, it requires research, enterprise, renewal. According to Arendt (2001), educating means “taking responsibility” for action and participation in the world we live in, aware of human practices.
The study’s general objective is to understand the relevance of educating through research in promoting meaningful learning, through exploratory bibliographic research, guiding paths to qualitative education. Based on research in studies by several authors, it analyzes the importance of educating through research from the perspective of Pedro Demo and other authors necessary to understand the theme listed here. This study was justified, considering the context presented, that it is necessary to start from the principles that it is researching education that leads to innovation and transformation, and it can act as a facilitator of the construction of educational knowledge in new environments that provide meaningful learning.
In this way, the educator apprehends concepts and experiences combining theory with pedagogical praxis and, based on the acquired knowledge, transmits them to the students. It should be emphasized that education through research will guide educators who will be mediators for their students in teaching-learning. Therefore, according to Gadotti (2000), it is up to the school to consider the students’ prior knowledge and observe such knowledge as a starting point for the advancement of new learning constructions. School learning is understood as a social process, an activity of reproduction and production of knowledge through which, in the interaction and under the guidance/mediation of the teacher, the student assimilates and internalizes the fundamentals of scientific content and also improves the form of the search.
In this conception, it is important to emphasize that the eyes are much more focused on the subject (student) who acts and interacts, feels, is, thinks and does. It is emphasized, then, the relevance of the professor acting, also, as a researcher so that he can educate in this research perspective.
2. EDUCATION THROUGH RESEARCH AND ITS ROLE IN KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
In the area of education, more important than the course in which the individual is inserted, is the need for a new professional culture, the construction of a new educational environment, in which the relationship between theory and practice is made from the beginning of training. , encouraging future educators to develop critical reflection on the theories presented to them. In order to be an educator through research, the teacher needs to improve, more and more, their knowledge, seeking training, since there is a new level of demand for increasingly qualified professionals, due to the current challenges of this demanding and excluding society that demands increasingly higher qualifications, thus expanding the needs for educational improvement (WANDERLEY, 2003).
There is an urgent need, then, for the study, teaching, research and expansion of the individual’s knowledge. Concerns about education must be part of the life of the active and dynamic subject who demands and acts as a transformer of society, since it is only through education that the individual will be able to understand and situate himself in society as a participatory citizen. and responsible (DEMO, 2003). It must be assumed that the educational act is necessarily composed of knowledge and that these could be logically organized or organized according to the students’ interests and experiences.
Insisting on the second alternative, knowledge would help the individual to understand their actions within society, the academic space, the school and how they are organized (SAVIANI, 2012). In this way, the education act leads the individual to realize the importance of knowing this reality, the need to participate in it and to verify that it can be transformed and improved from changes that are made as a result of political will. Such changes, in turn, need to be demanded by society as a whole (DEMO, 1996). The education act is not only composed of knowledge/content to be worked on. The mediation between reality and the knowledge that emerges from it needs to be adequately elaborated and re-elaborated based on a methodology.
The ideal profile of the educator, in Demo’s view, would be that of a creative, sensitive human being who, due to such characteristics, lives his time intensely, has conscience and is a researcher. Pedro Demo emphasizes that it is necessary to educate through research and that it is a condition of education that the teacher also acts as a researcher. He does not need to be a research professional, “but he needs to be, as an education professional, a researcher” (DEMO, 2003, p. 38). These reflections on education support the search for research, so that the educator can deepen the syllabus, their knowledge, as well as the diversified methodologies to be applied and incorporated into the subject taught by them.
This cross-cutting theme, which refers to the ‘role of education’, teaches us to see the world in a different, more globalized way and to think about education in a more comprehensive and reflective way, once we get to know the reality of being and the relationship between it and the context in which it lives, is also a way of thinking about education in an analytical way (BRASIL, 2001). The pedagogue Sônia Maria Bitencourt reported in EXAME magazine, in 2001, about the enormous role played by education, and, thus, stated that the biggest challenge of education is to teach how to think. In this way, we need a school that mediates between the teacher and the student in the requirement of helping him to think and reflect, seeking to form critical and reflective citizens, able to interact with the world.
However, it is necessary for the professional to take risks and search for innovative knowledge, and, finally, he must act in a way that he can exercise his citizenship (BITENCOURT, 2001). In line with this understanding, Paulo Freire (1997, p. 44) asserts that “it is by thinking critically about today’s and yesterday’s praxis that later practice will be improved”. Based on this assertion, it is easy to understand why pedagogical praxis is a constant object of debate and discussion. The educator who mediates knowledge needs to understand that his pedagogical praxis can only be useful, that is, he must contribute and stimulate the collective intelligence of the students. In addition, he needs to be active and the subject of his pedagogical act.
The teacher who is aware of his role as an educator redirects his activities whenever necessary. At the time of the 21st century, according to Wanderley (2003), there were several theories about the university. This space was understood as a place, in a historical perspective, ideal for creating and disseminating science, and also for its development, contemplating missions such as the continued training of teachers at a higher and technical level, paying attention to the needs to reach the objectives. The university is understood, then, as responsible for the articulation between teaching, research and extension, supported by requirements created by society itself. In this sense, educating through research aims to boost teaching practice.
This innovative action is designed for teachers to motivate and also encourage students to acquire the taste and see how necessary research is in the classroom and in the extracurricular context. For this to occur effectively, it is necessary to have changes both in the role of the educator and in the receptivity of the student to assimilate these changes, so that, in this way, there is a contribution to the search for the reconstruction of knowledge, in a way that encompasses the theoretical aspects and pragmatists (DEMO, 2003). In this scenario presented, education should be seen as one of the first priorities in the governmental action plan. The training of male and female teachers, therefore adapted to current needs, is one of the fundamental foundations of the entire educational reform process.
Students currently come from a multicultural society, and thus there is a diversity of families, cultures, races, languages and socioeconomic levels (NOGUEIRA; ROMANELLI; ZAGO, 2007). We owe everyone an efficient and respectful education system, that is, one that effectively prepares them for the academic, professional and social realities of the 21st century (SAVIANI, 2012). The challenge of educating through research naturally leads to organizing work so that teachers need to develop the necessary skills. The importance of common sense should also be highlighted (LÜDKE and ANDRÉ, 1986). Authority cannot be understood as authoritarianism. The teacher has to understand, on certain occasions, the student’s flaws. Instead of repressing him, he needs to help him, with humility and tolerance to develop (DEMO, 2003).
For Libâneo (2007), what is intended with the new generation of educators is that they do not perpetuate the traditional line of teaching, but that they seek new and original ways of teaching. Transforming praxis is the great scope of this aspect, and, in this sense, the various media, such as books, videos, images, music, among other visual and sound resources, are powerful allies of the 21st century teacher, and, thus, it is a strategy that benefits interdisciplinarity, innovation, creativity and that values the educator as a fundamental protagonist of Education. It is necessary to involve the student in these new activities so that they realize that they can contribute to their own teaching-learning process. They change the teacher, they change the students: there will certainly be more interest, participation and involvement on the part of everyone.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The trend of today’s society is to gradually transform itself into a knowledge society, so that education and research must be interconnected, since they are crucial to the improvement of the cultural, social and economic dimension that moves subjects, communities and nations, which demonstrates that our society is experiencing a profound crisis of ideals, and thus the university environment must incorporate moral and spiritual aspects into its disciplines.
There are many arguments that show the important role of universities and schools in social transformation. Research, the way it considers knowledge and the context are fundamental to fulfilling its role. Education through research becomes a challenge in contemporary times. However, it is necessary to provide students with moments of research and observation, giving them the opportunity to seek knowledge and learning, encouraging them to learn and experience new experiences in the school environment.
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[1] Master in Social Management, Education and Regional Development. Postgraduate in Higher Teaching by FASB in Teixeira de Freitas – BA. Postgraduate in Media in Education from UESB-BA. Bachelor of Laws from Faculdade Pitágoras de Teixeira de Freitas – BA. Graduated in Full Degree in Social Sciences from Fundação Educacional do Nordeste Mineiro – MG. Teacher of the state network-SEC-BA. Teacher in the municipal network of SMEC-BA.
Sent: September, 2019.
Approved: June, 2020.
