SOARES, Alexandre Gomes. Introduction of gender-focused courses in undergraduate programs in teacher education: trajectories and challenges in three federal universities in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. 2018. 169f. Dissertation (Doctorate in Education)-Graduate Program in Education, School of Education, University of São Paulo. This doctoral dissertation aims to analyze the introduction processes of gender and sexual diversity-focused courses in undergraduate programs in teacher education at three public higher education institutions in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The specific objectives are: 1) to identify what is distinctive in such introduction processes, 2) to identify the elements that guaranteed the continuance of these courses in their respective programs, and 3) to analyze how these experiences can contribute to other institutions that have not included similar components in their undergraduate programs in teacher education. More specifically, this dissertation examines the introduction process of four gender and sexual diversity-focused courses (two mandatory and two elective courses) by building on qualitative research supported by both document analyses and interviews with 4 female professors and 3 male professors related to the introduction processes or the courses. Post-structuralist theoretical reflections on teacher education, gender and sexual diversity were fundamental to the analysis, including Joan Scott's (1990, 2012) and other researchers' approach to gender Bernard Charlot's (2013) approach to knowledge, and Paulo Freire's (1997, 2014) approach to education as a means to humanization. In general, the results point out that gender and sexual diversity-focused courses are the product of both individual and collective endeavors when key professors have been committed to gender and sexual diversity. However, several challenges have to be faced in a context of ongoing changes in education policies both at the university and the government levels.