Astronomy in curricula for the initial training of physics teachers: a diagnostic analysis

The present research, of a descriptive-explanatory character, presents a diagnosis of the Teaching Physics Programmes in Brazil, examining particularly the presence of Astronomy disciplines in their curricula. The diagnosis was made from the analysis of information about Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the curricular matrices of Physics teacher training courses authorized by the Ministry of Education (MEC), as well as based upon data on the number of graduated students in 2019, made available by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP). We classify HEIs according to the type of administration and the region where they are located; the courses, according to the teaching modality and regarding the presence of disciplines related to Astronomy; and also regarding access to such subjects by teachers who completed their training in 2019. The information was compared, organized, and related to try to estimate the percentage of professionals trained in 2019 who had access to Astronomy subjects in their initial training. The results show that each HEI trained, on average, less than ten teachers per course, with the highest training rates being observed in private HEIs in the Southeast region, and the lowest in public HEIs in the North region. The analysis shows that a small number of Physics Degree Courses in our country offers disciplines of Astronomy in its curricular architecture. The South region has the largest offer of Astronomy disciplines, but this has little impact on the national scene, as the region accounts for only 15% of teachers trained in the country, while the other regions stand out more for not offering such courses. Regarding HEIs, the best scenario is observed in the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology and the most worrying in private HEIs. We comment on the importance of a revision in the curricula of Physics teacher training courses, foreseeing the inclusion of Astronomy subjects to make them more attractive to future teachers and to reduce school dropout and deficit of teachers in Brazil.

Physics Teaching; Astronomy Teaching; teacher training; curricula.