Education and Teaching of Astronomy: a current overview of academic production in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to portray the current panorama of research focused on Education and/or Teaching of Astronomy in Brazil. For this, we searched for scientific articles, theses and academic dissertations that were published in the country in the last five decades, using various data sources. The results achieved show that academic works with this theme have increased especially over the last twenty years, with the research lines Basic Education and Initial and Continuing Teacher Training being the main interest of researchers in the area, among other subjects categorized by us. The most prominent journals in the dissemination of scientific articles on the subject are the Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física, the Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física and the Revista Latino-Americana de Educação em Astronomia, which together account for more than 75% of the works found. The University of São Paulo is a reference in terms of theses and dissertations. However, despite having proven to be a rich, diverse, and growing area of research, these academic productions are excessively concentrated in the Southeast and South regions of the country, which prevents a better dissemination of this knowledge in Education in Brazil.