Teachers and media: a beautiful path (to be) followed – 10/11/2023 – Education

With the arrival of Teachers’ Day, celebrated annually on October 15th, it is necessary to recognize the relevance of these professionals, who are increasingly in demand as society makes its processes more complex, making the exercise of citizenship more challenging.

New phenomena, which have been worrying different sectors of society, fall on education, often as emergencies. These, however, are not and cannot be implemented overnight, without due depth and reflection, which, unlike the logic of producing and disseminating content on digital platforms and social networks, takes time.

Despite criticism of the quality of education, especially in relation to the late incorporation of technologies into their pedagogical processes, which happened more effectively, although forced, during the pandemic, teachers already demonstrate an important alignment with respect to principles and values democratic and citizens who must guide digital and media education practices at school.

Data from the most recent ICT Education 2022 survey, conducted by the Regional Center for Studies for the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), shows that 89% of teachers say they have carried out activities with their classes on topics such as physical and mental health problems caused by the internet (67%); digital exposure, harassment or dissemination of images without consent (71%); cyberbullying, hate speech and discrimination (76%); and fake news and responsible sharing of content and opinions (78%).

Other empirical data goes in the same direction. Since the first semester of this year, educators entering the training of EducaMídia multipliers, a media education program at Instituto Palavra Aberta, have taken a ten-question test, based on which their previous repertoire on the topic is assessed. The same questionnaire is answered at the end of the course, with course participants moving on to the second stage of training, of a creative nature, in which they must develop a project for the practical application of media education in their contexts.

In two editions of the research, it was possible to observe the same profile of teachers: a mastery of the didactic and pedagogical perspectives that should guide the teaching of media and digital culture, alignment regarding media education as a right and about the fundamental principles and concepts of freedom of expression. expression. The questions related to these themes presented between 84.9% and 97.2% correct answers in the initial assessment.

However, the main weaknesses of these teachers still fall on the conceptualization of disinformation and fake news, as well as the operational difficulty of these professionals in verifying the reliability of information and differentiating the intentions of media messages. In this regard, the correct answers range between 27.5% and 41.9%.

Given this, we can conclude that teachers already understand the foundations of media and technologies and how they should integrate pedagogical practices, in order to train critical citizens for an ethical and democratic use of media and digital resources, which represents an important advancement in the quality of education.

However, there is still a need to delve deeper into key concepts that already permeate contemporary sociocultural relations, such as disinformation and, certainly, the emergence of new forms of artificial intelligence, themes that should be part, from now on, of multiple media literacy initiatives and information of Brazilian educators, both in their initial training, in teaching degrees, and in continuing education.

At the same time that we demand the training of children and young people for the challenges of the 21st century, society and public authorities must also commit to teachers, who deal with media and information in their daily lives. Therefore, they also have the right to expand their repertoire to deal critically with the complexities of information, not only as intermediaries between social demands and children and young people, but above all as citizens and subjects of law that they are.