Recent proposals to reform teacher education in Brazil

Teacher education has been a subject of major interest for teachers, researchers, political representatives and educational authorities for decades. Universities and other research institutions have a large number of researchers who study issues related to teacher training at the various levels of schooling. Teachers themselves, either individually or through professional associations, have always been attentive to modifications in teacher training courses and interested in improving their careers through continued education efforts. This article addresses teacher education. Specifically, it discusses teacher education in Brazil and the recent proposals to reform existing programs by the current Brazilian government. First, we argue that recent reforms in teacher education function as resources for economic growth, a view clearly committed to production and productivity. Though the discourse of educational planning also includes the so-called qualitative goals, fundamentally they are quantitative. Second, we argue that a tension between mechanisms to flexibilize the educational process and instruments to control and evaluate its products underlines the government proposals. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.