Cultura Digital Escolar: entre documentos e entrevistas com professores de matemática e gestores de uma escola pública

Abstract

This study, which encompasses digital culture, schooling, teaching, school management, digital technologies, and the pandemic, seeks to answer the following question: How does school digital culture manifest from the perspective of teachers, coordinators, and principals with the progression of the pandemic in the post-pandemic context? Guided by the general objective of analyzing how school digital culture is perceived by teachers, coordinators, and principals amid the progression of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic, we interviewed three Mathematics teachers, three pedagogical coordinators, and two principals from a public school in the municipality of Itaporã, Mato Grosso do Sul. Through a qualitative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews to produce data, with questions addressing the periods prior to, during, and following the pandemic. Furthermore, we examined guiding and regulatory documents, decrees, and ordinances issued by institutions involved in education—such as the Ministry of Education, the State Department of Education of Mato Grosso do Sul, the State Council of Education, and the National Council of Education—to support our understanding of the pandemic response measures that also impacted the education sector. It is important to emphasize that this dissertation is written in a multipaper format, in which data analysis is carried out in the form of academic articles. In the first article, we observed the initial measures adopted during the pandemic to confront the challenges in school education, taking into account both official documents and interview responses. The study revealed how the pandemic forced a rupture in traditional school culture, replacing face-to-face instruction with remote learning and intensifying the use of digital technologies. The regulatory documents and statements by school leaders and teachers revealed a transition marked by the need for rapid adaptation and the adoption of hybrid strategies, such as digital and printed activities. The analysis also highlights student exhaustion with digital videos and the efforts made by schools to adjust their pedagogical practices. Prior to the pandemic, the use of technologies was optional, but it became essential to enable remote teaching, indicating a significant transformation in school digital culture. In the second article, by analyzing the use of digital technologies in Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the pandemic, with a focus on basic education, we observed a distinction between digital technologies, such as WhatsApp, Google Meet, and digital videos, and non-digital technologies. The former were widely used due to their connectivity and flexibility, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous communication. The interviews indicated that teachers faced considerable challenges, particularly in mathematics instruction, in dealing with abstract concepts without direct interaction. Suggested solutions include complementing videos with interactive activities such as forums and collaborative tasks, as well as integrating active methodologies such as quizzes and real-time feedback. We underscore the importance of continuous teacher training to address emergency situations, fostering mastery of technologies and pedagogical strategies that engage students remotely. Teacher adaptation was essential in overcoming the abrupt changes imposed by the pandemic. In the third article, we analyzed the influence of initial teacher education on the use of digital technologies in Mathematics teaching after the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed that undergraduate curricula prioritized algorithms, programming, and software, but neglected the pedagogical application of these technologies. Therefore, we propose the restructuring of relevant courses to include the didactic use of digital technologies. We argue that teacher education should prepare educators to work in contexts where digital environments are ever-present, promoting competencies that integrate technology into teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as strategies that foster student protagonism. We also identified a lack of digital literacy among students, which hindered their ability to conduct research and reflect on the relevance of content. As a solution, we suggest introducing digital technologies from the early years of primary education, encouraging their educational use and challenging the perception that such technologies are solely for recreational purposes.