Personalized education based on the definitions of brazilian teachers: a bibliometric analysis using IRAMUTEQ

Abstract

In the international literature, there are different definitions of personalized education (PE) that can lead to different actions in teaching practice. In Brazil, personalized education is still not fully known and understood by the actors who work in basic/higher education. Thereby, this research emerges from the need to understand PE through the eyes of teachers. Thus, we investigate the understanding of some Brazilian teachers of different educational levels about their conceptions of PE, using the descending hierarchical analysis in IRAMUTEQ software. This is a quali-quantitative approach research, being defined as a descriptive research. The methodology was divided into four stages, with the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The social actors in the research were 107 teachers from 15 brazilian states and the Federal District who answered the questionnaire, and 12 volunteered to participate in the semi-structured interview. The results showed, through the descending hierarchical analysis, the teachers' conceptions of the definition of personalized education through their speeches. Nine discourses were identified in the questionnaire responses and three discourses extracted from the interviews. The data reveal a lack of knowledge about personalized education and its synonyms, at the research and definition level, being confused with individualized education. In short, for teachers, personalized education is a proposal that takes into account the individual characteristics and needs of students, being the target audience a student or a group of students.