ABSTRACT
This article gathers empirical bases from two wider research projects which focus the relations between docent training and profession at the Education and the Biological Sciences Teaching courses. Our goal was to investigate the acquired and produced knowledge by experts and multifunctional teachers for the development of autonomous practices, and its relation with the initial formation. We mobilized the theoretical references about Docent Knowledge to analyse the autonomous teacher under a relational emphasis on the testimonies of elementary education teachers. Information about formative experiences during graduation and the teaching career initial phase was acquired by interviews and collective discussions, and the analyses sought to question the relations between formation, profession and circumstances that contribute to the autonomous practices development. The results emphasize fragilities related to the formation when it comes to teacher training, highlighting the mastery of content and teaching methodology. The testimonies show, also, that some topics were misunderstood or were not able to induce much interest at graduation, but they started to make sense or to help by generating concerns after clashes with the school demands. The testimonies' interpretation points to the need of valuing the docents' professional dimension during their initial formation, as a condition to autonomous practices development.
Keywords:
teacher training; initial formation; docent profession; docent autonomy.