Continuing teacher training: reflections from complex thinking and transdisciplinarity

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the epistemology of complex thinking and transdisciplinarity and their importance for contemporary teacher training processes. With this in mind, the question is: how can complex thinking and transdisciplinarity contribute to the processes of continuing teacher training? How does this epistemology favor pedagogical practices that are committed to the demands of today's reality? In order to deepen theoretical contributions to transformative education, the construction and reconstruction of knowledge can be based on self-organizing principles. In this way, we need training spaces that encourage change. More humane, flexible, collective and integrative teaching practices must be applied, starting from the teaching space itself, with theory/practice interconnected. In this respect, the procedure adopted was a qualitative bibliographic approach, with the aim of deepening the theoretical contributions on the vision of an education that seeks a formation based on the resignification of conceptions, concepts and strategies of the learning and teaching process. Results demonstrate the relevance of a teacher training based upon the epistemology of complex thinking, the transdisciplinarity and the articulation between knowledge and its organization. This perspective may contribute to a more integrated and contextualized pedagogical practice that is capable to face the complexity of social and educational challenges; furthermore, it promotes the training of more critical and reflective teachers who are able to deal with the diversity and uncertainty inherent in the educational process.