Bridging the Gap between Curriculum Planning Policies and Pre-service Teachers’ Needs

Abstract

The challenge and satisfaction of being a teacher is doubled when one has the precious task of being a teacher trainer, as our practices replicate exponentially, touching the lives of people we do not even get to meet. Accordingly, this article presents the analysis of a process that brought tensions to a teacher training program because of the need to comply with the guidelines of the National Ministry of Education while considering pre-service teachers’ needs. Thus, a descriptive analysis was done, through a questionnaire, with the objective of portraying pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum that underlies their teaching training program, and characterizing their contributions in the face of a new curriculum design. The gains obtained out of the participants’ insights were key in understading their feelings and provided a good source of information for the new curriculum. The results suggest that pre-service teachers’ perceptions broaden teacher trainers’ horizons and enrich curriculum planning as a step towards meaningful and inclusive learning.