Cartography at Elementary School Level: Continuing Education of Teachers and Experiences in the Classroom - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 65

The basic data for the research were drawn from our experience in creating and
coordinating the CECEMCA/UNESP continuing education courses on the theme
Cartography and the Environment, especially the reports prepared for UNESP and
MEC from 2007 to 2009 as well as the reports of the educators, tutors and
professors involved in the process founded in UNESP ( 2008 , 2009 ). We still had
access to final reports of the participating teachers, who developed practical
activities with their pupils in the classroom, some of which were selected to give
concreteness to the ideas expressed here.
To develop the research we referred to the qualitative methodology, which is
explained in Bogdan and Biklen ( 1994 ):
We use the term qualitative investigation as a generic term that includes numerous research
strategies that share certain characteristics. The data collected are called qualitative, which
means rich in descriptive de-tails regarding people, places and conversations, and complex
in terms of statistical analysis. The issues to be investigated are not established through
operationalizing variables; rather, they are formulated with the objective to investigate the
phenomena in all their complexity and natural context. Although the individuals who carry
out qualitative research might select specific issues as they collect the data, the approach to
the research is not designed to answer previous questions or test hypotheses. They favor, in
essence, the understanding of behaviors based on the point of view of the subjects of the
investigation.
Thus, stories, photos, drawings and descriptions of tasks performed by the
teacher and his/her pupils, are presented in the attempt to comprehend how effec-
tive the education of the teachers in Cartography and the Environment was and
understand the results of the practices developed throughout the course.
The Center for Continuing Education in Mathematic, Scientific and Environ-
mental Education (CECEMCA/UNESP) is a UNESP Extension Program run by the
Dean's Office, which began its operation following approval of the project submit-
ted by UNESP to the Ministry of Education (MEC), which culminated with the
creation of CECEMCA/UNESP in March 2004. From this date on, CECEMCA
went on to set up the National Network for Continuing Education of Teachers of the
Secretariat of Elementary Education (SEB) of MEC.
All the teaching material prepared by the CECEMCA team makes up the SEB/
MEC network file. In this experiment of educating teachers about Cartography and
the Environment, through the continuing education courses at CECEMCA/UNESP,
we referred to the topic Cartography and the Environment by Freitas ( 2005 ).
There was a condition in these courses that all registered teachers had to be part
of a study group, in which there was a mediator appointed by the Secretary of
Education (named as tutor), who had prior training in a specific course. We placed
the responsibility on the teaching leaders of the Municipality, the Secretary of
Education and his team, to choose the local tutor. The tutor was responsible for
preparing the learning activities to act as coordinator of the Study Group, composed
of 10-30 teachers of his city and region.
The training courses for tutors ranged from 40 to 120 h, while the teacher training
courses mediated by tutors were from 40 to 180 h, depending on the demands of the
systems of teaching partners. One standout feature of the training courses for the