Culture of silence, professional identity and the educator: a state of the question

This paper aims to establish an analytical framework about the culture of silence in the educator’s identity, showing problems and theoretical and methodological bases. It is a cross-section of the research entitled Culture of Silence in the professional identity of Educational Topics Technicians and Educators in the light of the Freirean thought currently being carried out at the Postgraduate Program in Education (Academic Doctorate Degree in Education) of the State University of Ceará (PPGE/UECE). The methodology adopted at this stage was the qualitative research, resorting to the State of the Question, with a survey, review and deep bibliographical data analysis of the data, based on Freire’s studies. Among other sources, the most important are the directories named Thesis and Dissertations Bank of the Coordinating Agency for Advanced Training of Graduate Personnel (CAPES), the Brazilian Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertations (BDTD), and the CAPES Journals Portal. The results include 36 mapped papers, 10 of which deal with the culture of silence, and 26 of which deal with the educator’s professional identity. We verified a predominance of the qualitative approach of investigation, with a quantitative highlight for bibliographical, documentary, and field/exploratory research. Among the data collection procedures, the application of a questionnaire and the conduction of a semi-structured interview stand out. As for the theoretical bases, the studies by Paulo Freire and Venício Artur Lima (‘Culture of silence’ category); Stuart Hall and Claude Dubar (‘Identity’ category); and Selma Garrido Pimenta, José Carlos Libâneo and DermevalSaviani (‘Educator’ category). Thus, considering the theoretical and methodological contributions (investigative purpose, goals, problems, analysis categories and references), we emphasize the pertinence of more and deeper reflections about the State of the Question as an original, creative, critical and contributory manner in comparison with scientific research.