Análise multidimensional do letramento acadêmico no âmbito da formação docente em Ciências e Biologia

Abstract

Despite the text-centered nature of contemporary society, research on literacy still receives little attention in academic settings. As a result, the responsibility for developing students’ writing skills is often delegated to basic education teachers. However, Science and Biology teachers must also act as agents of literacy, especially scientific literacy, which demands greater attention to reading and writing during their training. This qualitative and exploratory research seeks to investigate academic literacy in the training of Science and Biology teachers through a multidimensional approach that considers sociocultural, cognitive, and linguistic processes. In the sociocultural dimension, the study draws on the New Literacy Studies, Bakhtin’s concept of speech genres, and the notion of discourse communities. In the linguistic dimension, it examines the formal aspects of academic genres. In the cognitive dimension, the focus is on metacognitive strategies such as reporting, summarizing, analyzing, and self-monitoring. The study began with a literature review of the past 20 years on academic literacy in teacher education for Science and Biology. In the empirical stage, 21 final-year undergraduate students from the Biological Sciences teaching program at UERJ – Maracanã responded to a questionnaire about their socioeconomic profile, difficulties, skills, and experiences with academic writing. The data were analyzed using content analysis. Subsequently, nine students were asked to write a scientific abstract based on an adapted academic text, in order to identify difficulties and strengths in producing the genre, as well as the use of metacognitive strategies. The literature review revealed a lack of national studies focused on Biology teacher education. The questionnaire results showed a majority of female participants, socioeconomic diversity, and extended training periods. The responses also pointed to difficulties with linguistic norms, discourse conventions, and the construction of authorship, along with a sense of insecurity about belonging to the scientific community. The analysis of the abstracts produced revealed a gap between students’ self-perceptions and the quality of their texts. All participants recognized the importance of academic literacy for their future teaching practice. The reported difficulties appear to be linked to the persistence of an autonomous model of literacy, which reinforces inequalities, especially in the absence of institutional policies to support academic literacy. The study concludes that both institutional and public policies are needed to promote academic literacy in the training of Science and Biology teachers.