The teacher his professional development: overcoming the conception of the incompetent tormentor

The criticism to the model of technical rationality and the emergence of the reflective critical approach enable the recognition of the importance of the teacher and his professional development as a decisive variant to the comprehension of the educative phenomenon. However, in Brazil we witness analysis which portrait teachers as eternal "scapegoats", instead of understanding a "teaching culture in action" and its role to the school transformation. This paper tries to show, according to researches done by the author and a group of researchers in Araraquara - SP, the need for conceiving the teachers as "dilemma managers". They have to be considered as subjects of practice and knowledge who need to be analysed according to their professional development, which are interposed by their work conditions, values and social context. This conception is decisive to any consequent attempt of transforming the school.