CONTEMPORARY TEACHING: TECHNOLOGIES, TRAINING AND PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the relationships between technologies, teacher training and pedagogical challenges in contemporary times, adopting Applied Linguistics as a perspective to understand teaching as a situated social practice. This is qualitative, bibliographic and interpretive research, in dialogue with authors such as Moita Lopes, Kenski, Rojo e Moura, Tardif, Nóvoa and Freire, and illustrated by a classroom practice in which students created a novel about bullying, read from a decolonial perspective. The analysis shows that technologies, by themselves, do not generate pedagogical innovation: their effects depend on the educational purpose, teaching mediation, procedural evaluation and the teacher's ongoing training. It also shows that working conditions, inequalities of access and professional autonomy are not external factors to contemporary teaching, as they define what teachers and students can achieve. It is concluded that innovation is less in the tool and more in the ability to make conscious pedagogical choices.