Continuing education in a pandemic context: from the fundamental gestures of the trainer to the specific gesture of conflict regulation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze a meeting that makes up an in-service teacher education training session on teaching text production, which took place in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. This session was developed with the participation of 1^st-5^th grade teachers at Elementary School, during the Collective Pedagogical Work Hour (HTPC). The specific objective is to identify which dimensions of the session (referring to the socio-historical context, the didactic scope, referring to the teacher educator’s gestures) give rise to conflicts faced by the participants in the meeting (two teachers and a teacher educator). As a theoretical reference, to discuss teaching work, we base ourselves on Machado (2007, 2010), on Machado and Bronckart (2009) and (AMIGUES, 2004). To discuss work, conflict, and development, we resorted to the Clinic of Activity (CLOT 2006, 2010, 2016). For the purposes of analyzing the teacher trainer's gestures, we resorted to Gagnon et al (2018). The results show that the conflicts experienced by teachers emerge from the gesture of mobilizing the practice of teaching text production during remote teaching. This issue triggers conflicts in the axis of social context, prescriptions, and interpersonal interactions. Thus, it appears that the participants' conflicts are a dimension of the trainer's activity, and, in this sense, the identification of the conflict regulation gesture is necessary, as the tensions can re-signify the relationship of those involved in the training process.