The aim of this investigation is to analyze how secondary school teachers appropriate the discourse of chemistry curriculum innovation. The study is based on interviews carried out with 12 teachers who have taken part in the PRÓ-MÉDIO and PRÓ-CIÊNCIAS programs of continued training and innovation implemented in Minas Gerais State in Brazil, from 1997 to 1999. The appropriation of the innovation discourse by the teachers is dealt with based on the "metalinguistic" perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin, using mainly the concepts of appropriation of the discourse of the other and polyphony. Thus, it was possible to listen to the different voices within the discourse of each teacher, in a complex process of justification, accordance, competition and dissimulation, among other dynamics, creating and re-creating the meanings of innovation. The teacher's experience sometimes acts as an ally to the school culture in the criticism of idealized academic discourses; sometimes it is in opposition to certain traditional teaching practices, becomes an ally of innovation.
Chemical education; Curricular innovation; Teachers; Discourses
