Abstract
Since the 1990s, Latin America has been the scene of numerous education reforms resulting from recommendations of international organizations, dictated by the neoliberal economic model. These reforms materialized basically in the establishment of assessment systems, the emphasis on continuing teacher education and the dissemination of information and communication technologies. In this article, we focus on the issue of continuing teacher education, aiming at identifying, characterizing and comparing current policies in Brazil and Mexico. We also analyze the strategies of their implementation, with special attention to the forms of appropriation of the proposals in both countries. In this comparative exercise, we start from the concept that, although under the same logic, the formative projects express different political and cultural contexts, as well as tensions, disputes and interests for their implementation. In this sense, it is true that they meet demands by placing the teacher as the center of their concerns. However, in general, this does not imply that teachers are considered subjects of political action in their education and teaching activities; on the contrary, they start from the principle that teachers lack elements to educate, which should be supplied in continuing education courses. Such courses, by focusing on certification (Brazil), or on obtaining scores for career advancement (Mexico), may result in further overwork. Nevertheless, teachers often invent forms of appropriation of these courses unforeseen by the public policies, building new meanings for their teaching.
In-service teacher; Continuing education; Latin America; Educational policy; Teaching
