Biogram in educational research: meanings constructed about learning rights in teaching mathematics

Abstract

Narrative research has been used by several researchers in the fields of education and mathematics education, using different devices to produce data. One of them, which is still not very well known in the field in our country, is the biogram: a map of the participant’s professional career that makes it possible to highlight events that occurred through their chronology and the value given by the participant himself, in dialog with the researcher. The aim of this article is to discuss the possibilities and limits of using the biogram in educational research, based on its use in studies about the training experience in the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (PNAIC), in relation to learning to teach mathematics in the early years of elementary school. To this end, the use of the biogram in the research process is presented and discussed. As with any device aimed at producing data, the use of the biogram has some limits, such as the difficulty of synthesizing information from an interview and the need to make interpretations according to what was explained by the participant. On the other hand, it offers the possibility of reflecting on professional development trajectories and training programs that constitute milestones (critical incidents) for the construction of new beliefs, classroom practices, and teaching knowledge, among others. In addition, it can promote self-education for both the researcher and the participant, by allowing the process of valuing conversations in a time and space, triggered by the present lived and narrated.