CONVERSATION CIRCLES AND TEACHER TRAINING: POSSIBLE DIALOGUES ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Abstract

This paper is the result of an activity held during Tânia Mara Education Week at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), titled “Building Bridges: A Roundtable Discussion on Gender and Sexuality in Teacher Education.” The overall objective of this article is to analyze how the concepts of gender and sexuality have been addressed in student training, as well as to investigate future teachers’ perceptions of the topic in their pedagogical practices. Methodologically, the research was based on an online discussion circle, which served as a space for dialogue and inquiry. As key findings, we can highlight that students perceive a strong surveillance of the topic in the school environment, which often restricts the debate to the mere reproduction of social roles. However, the narratives revealed a critical stance among participants, who questioned the structural fixity of identities, cisheteronormative naturalization, and even the capitalist reinforcement of gender production from childhood onward. It is concluded that the concepts of gender and sexuality require continuous reflection and that dialogic educational spaces, such as the one described here, are fundamental for promoting deconstruction and critical strengthening in initial teacher education.