Transformações do hábito profissional docente: percepções sobre o ensino remoto emergencial por professores de química do ensino superior sob a perspectiva da semiótica peirciana

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused profound transformations in educational systems worldwide, leading higher education institutions to adopt Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) as an alternative to ensure the continuity of academic activities, which required professors to rapidly adapt their pedagogical practices through the use of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICT). In this context, this research aimed to analyze, in light of Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics, especially from his pragmatist conception of habit, the perceptions of Chemistry professors from two public higher education institutions regarding the challenges and potential related to the implementation of synchronous and asynchronous activities during ERT, seeking to understand their impacts on Teacher Professional Development (TPD). Methodologically, this study is characterized as qualitative, and the data construction involved the analysis of the participants’ Lattes Curricula, the conduction of semi-structured interviews in an online environment, and the development of phenomenon maps to organize and systematize the participants’ statements, which were subsequently analyzed through categories derived from Peircean semiotics, particularly the sign–object–interpretant relation and the notions of emotional, energetic, and logical interpretants. The results indicate that the imposition of ERT triggered different processes of reflection on teaching praxis, especially regarding the incorporation of digital technologies, the reorganization of teaching strategies, and the redefinition of pedagogical relationships established in the virtual environment, while also showing that the professors’ educational and professional trajectories significantly influenced the ways in which they addressed the demands emerging from the pandemic context. In some cases, reconfigurations in pedagogical practice were observed that point to processes of transformation in Teacher Professional Development; in others, the changes were more circumstantial and did not necessarily consolidate into lasting transformations in professional habit. It is concluded that Emergency Remote Teaching functioned as a disruptive element within the traditional face-to-face teaching system, capable of generating tensions and reflections on pedagogical practice, although not always sufficient to produce structural changes in the professional teaching habit. In this sense, the articulation between Peirce’s theory of habit and the field of Teacher Professional Development proves promising for a deeper understanding of the processes of formation, transformation, and stabilization of teaching practices in higher education, particularly in light of contemporary challenges related to the integration of digital technologies into the teaching and learning process.