A formação do psicólogo escolar no estado de São Paulo: subsídios para uma ação necessária

Abstract

This study arosa out a praoccupation prasant throughout our professional and academia life and which fundamentally refere toa study of the following questions. On what historical basis was Brazil's educational psychology built and, in particular, holl was it developed and put into practice in the state of são Paulo?; Taking the complexity of the school as an instituition into account, are educational psychologists trained in the undergraduate programmes of the state of São Paulo being prepared to exercias their profession in such a way that they will not merely reproduce the individualizing, decontextualised style of the "medica1 modeltt, present in practices verified throughout the history on their profession?; Will the university and undergraduate programmes be abre to represent an institutional space where the forroationof educational psychologists overcomes the conservative nature of this ares fo spectalization and prepares professionals competent to act critically in the current reality?. Through a historical study of applied psychology in education, particularly in the Brazilian context, we were abre to confirm that these two areas were built around mechanisms allied to the establishment, in the sense that they align individuals - especially school pupila - to patterns of adjustment established by society; however, we verify that these areas, principally that of education, have also been at various moments, spaces for resistance which spawned progressiva proposals which contemplated Man in the context of his social relationships. In order to gain knowledge of the formation of educational psychologists in the State of São Paulo, we proposad studying the subject both from the perspectiva of tha universities - through the programmes administerad in the ares of aducational psychology in the twelve undergraduate psychology courses - and from the perspectiva of the students - through the repilas to a questionnaire given to 384 students in 10 courses. Thess two perspectivas ShO~8d us that, in geoeral terms, the educational psychologist is being prepared to work with a clientela of low socio-economic level, present in state-run primary schools, with an anphasis, however, on individualizing actions aimed at treating learning disturbances in the child; such characteristicsa1so reveal the disjunction between theory classes where students read texte concerning social and institutional aspects, and practical placaments where they use remediei tachniques. However, studying each of the courses, it was possible to detect the existence of some programmes where link betwesn theory and practice seems to exist. finally, we present an experiment in the teaching of the discipline, "Educational Psychology and Learning Probleme", carried out with twenty Psychology ~tudants in a public university in the state of sio pauló which showed us the uiability of preparing psychologists to act critically and not reproductively, and which algo demonstrated the nead for university and undergraduate Psychology courses to draw Glosar to the concreta reality that surrounds them, trying to understand it and to discover in it the meaning for their production and their very existence