Human Arenas

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-022-00318-2

ARENA OF IMAGINATION

Imagination, Thought, and Reflection on the Development

of Teacher’s Identity to Deal with Cultural Diversity

Geilsa Costa Santos Baptista1   · Dirlane Gomes e Silva2   ·
Josenaide Alves da Silva3 

Received: 6 March 2020 / Revised: 2 November 2022 / Accepted: 3 November 2022

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Abstract
The present work aims to identify the importance of employing imagination to the continu-
ing training of science teachers to reach a pedagogical ability, sensitive to cultural diver-
sity. The research methodology is qualitative, with autobiography and content analysis.
The data are collected from a field diary written by a biology teacher who works at a public
school of Feira de Santana City, State of Bahia, Brazil. The field diary reports the teach-
er’s experience during the construction of a pedagogical resource to facilitate intercultural
dialogue in biology classes. The analysis shows that the teacher searched in her memory
different concepts and everyday situations that motivated her imagination and creativity,
externalized through verbal and nonverbal languages, in a written and illustrated story.
It is concluded that imagination is an important element for the training of those science
teachers who wish to be sensitive to cultural diversity. Imagination allows the creativity of
teaching strategies that favor the students’ representations of nature. Particularly, through
the establishment of a dialogue between scientific and non-scientific knowledge and prac-
tices, which are inherent to the students’ sociocultural contexts. This, in turn, promotes
both reflections on the teachers’ own pedagogical practices and the search for knowledge
that focuses on the development of new skills and abilities to deal with cultural diversity.

Keywords  Imagination · Intercultural science teaching · Continuous training

* Geilsa Costa Santos Baptista

geilsabaptista@gmail.com
Dirlane Gomes e Silva
dirlanegs@gmail.com
Josenaide Alves da Silva
josenaide.a.s@hotmail.com
1
Full professor, Education Department, phD in Teaching, Philosophy and History of Sciences, State
University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil
2
phD student, Teaching, Philosophy and History of Sciences, Federal University of Bahia, and State
University of Feira de Santana, Salvador, Brazil
3
phD in Teaching, Philosophy and History of Sciences, Federal University of Bahia & State
University of Feira de Santana, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

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 Baptista et al.

Introduction

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more

important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein
Imagination, from the Latin imaginatĭo, is a mental process of creating or representing
images, which may, or may not, be supported by past experiences. Imagination is based on
human subjectivity. What happens in the imaginary field precedes the acts of creation and
realization on the real or symbolic plane (Pino, 2006).
For Vygotsky (2009a, 2009b), the imagination is inextricably linked to thought, both
arising in a problematic situation, motivated by the needs of the subject. Human develop-
ment is produced and renewed by the support of imagination. Each one constitutes his/her
autonomy based on imagination, forming thoughts that provoke new reflections (Gaston,
1996).
Into the context of teacher training, and with reflective thinking, imagination gives
new visions of the teaching practice itself and the very meaning of being a teacher. For
the American pedagogue Donald Schön (1983), teacher’s reflection constitutes the criti-
cal focus of thinking on pedagogical actions (whether before, during, and/or after classes).
This reflection benefits the teachers’ professional development, exploring their own expe-
riences and that of their colleagues, to apply knowledge and solve daily professional and
pedagogical issues.
To Schön (1983), reflection requires the educator to review his/her own thoughts regard-
ing methods and actions, his/her pedagogical means, and practices so that new paths can
be discovered. It consists of thinking and rethinking the pedagogical practice, letting the
imagination to flow, and intervening on it.
Teachers understand their practice and the relationships established between different
cultural realities in the school context, by the reflection on their own teaching, or on the
colleagues’ practices (Freire, 1997). The lack of reflection, in contrast, is a defining char-
acteristic of teachers who do not exercise intercultural teaching, even if they report cogni-
tions that support this approach (Oranje, 2021). Therefore, reflective practices around cul-
tural issues are necessary to the intercultural development of the teacher and of his/her own
development (Marx & Moll, 2011).
Reflection is an exercise that activates the imagination in the pursuit of creative think-
ing and can support teachers in the challenge of teaching culturally sensitive. Baptista and
Silva (2017) argue that a teacher sensitive to cultural diversity is one who investigates,
understands, and includes students’ cultural knowledge in class, which requires creativity.
For Figueira-Oliveira and Rôças (2017) creativity interlaces intuitions and intellects, to
allow a better understanding of concepts and contents that are contextualized into the sub-
jects’ cultures. For these authors, this is an aspect of teachers’ cognitive renewal, capable
of motivating pedagogical innovations.
Creative teaching is related to the ability to generate opportunities for the construction
of meaningful knowledge (Rinkevich, 2011). This, in turn, requires spaces and moments
for the teachers, for the relationship between their thoughts, imaginations, reflections, and
creativity. According to Craft et al. (2014), creative teachers can modify the way they teach
to motivate participation and interest on the students.
In this work, understanding the importance of the relationship between thought, imag-
ination, and reflection to the formation of teachers to deal with sociocultural relations in

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Imagination, Teacher’s Identity and Diversity

classroom contexts, we raise the following question: what is the relevance of the imagi-
nation in the continuing education of science teachers, about the pedagogical capacity for
interculturality? This question arose from our studies and observations about the problems
in the continuing education of science teachers. There are difficulties in implementing peda-
gogical innovations and overcoming science classrooms based only on the reproduction and
response of scientific knowledge from textbooks, without opening to the dialogue between
the culture of science and the culture of students (Ducatti-Silva, 2005; Freire, 1997).
We present and discuss the results of a qualitative research involving a biology teacher
from a public school in the State of Bahia, Brazil, whose main objective was to investi-
gate the importance of using the imagination in the continuing training of science teacher
who is skilled to a pedagogical practice sensitive to cultural diversity present in science
classrooms.
We start from the assumption that the articulation of reflection and teaching imagination
is relevant to review pedagogical practices. For example, the teacher will be able to review
the conceptions of teaching, learning, and misconceptions about certain scientific contents,
and their relationships with other ways of knowing, stimulating creativity and the search
for pedagogical strategies to raise awareness of cultural diversity.

Methodology

This paper is supported by qualitative approach, based on autobiographical research and

collaborative work. Qualitative or naturalistic research, to Bogdan and Biklen (1994),
involves descriptive data generation, from direct contact of the researcher with the studied
situation, being a condition to support the study.
The autobiography, in the field of education, studies the experiences of the teacher, link-
ing the production of knowledge constructed in the life paths. Through the autobiography,
the teacher has the role of author and researcher of his own history (Souza, 2006), to reflect
and re-signify it. This method covers the use of varied instruments to collect data, includ-
ing the field diary (Souza, 2006).
The collaborative work is fundamental to conduct investigations and reflections by
teachers and, therefore, for their cognitive and professional development (Parrilla &
Daniels, 2004). Collaboration is open to the sharing of ideas and dialogue among the
members of the group since dialogue aims at the understanding of points of view of each
subject (Cárdias, 2006).

Data Collection and Analysis

A biology teacher’s field diary was used to collect data. The field diary was written during
her participation in a continuing training course for science teachers developed by the Dean
University Extension of the State University of Feira de Santana (PROEX-UEFS).
Practical activities of this course included the construction of a short tale to be applied
as a pedagogical resource based on intercultural dialogue, between the scientific knowl-
edge and the knowledge of the socio-cultural backgrounds of the students about local agri-
culture and the use of agrochemicals. The biology teachers were instructed to elaborate a
tale from their imagination, either using words and/or drawings, including the agricultural
reality of the daily life of most of the students who attended the school at that time.

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 Baptista et al.

The name of the teacher training course was Contributions of the Ethnobiology, His-
tory, and Philosophy of Sciences to the Science Teachers Sensitive to Cultural Diversity
(with 132 h long). It is important to inform that one of the theoretical bases that guided the
teacher training course was the contextual constructivism proposed by the North Ameri-
can professor and researcher William W. Cobern, for whom science education must seek
approximations between the culture of science and the culture of students, facilitating the
students’ learning development process (Cobern, 1993, 1996). To this end, Cobern pro-
poses the investigation of relationships between scientific knowledge and the knowledge
that are inherent to students’ daily life, to be understood and used in science classrooms
(Cobern, 1993).
The course took place in 2009 at the UEFS and guided by the second author of this
paper. Fourteen teachers applied to the course, with ages ranging from 28 to 41 years old.
Those teachers taught Natural Sciences (from 6 to 9th years of Elementary School, with
students between 11 and 14 years old) and Biology (from 1st to 3rd years of High School,
with students from 15 to 17 years old). All teachers signed a free informed consent term by
ethical standards and in accordance with current regulation in Brazil at the time, the resolu-
tion 196/96 of the Ministry of Health (Brazil, 2003).
The participating teacher prepared a narrative (Table  1) that addresses the biological
control of agricultural pests of the region and the consequences of using pesticides. The
tale was published in 2017 (Baptista & Silva, 2017). Through a colloquial and scientific
language, it presents the story of two friends who are in the farm. The first one begins to
complain about plagues that are attacking crops and trees of the farm. Then, the second
character suggests some alternatives to fight against agricultural pests. The tale finally gave
the evidence that using pesticides is not the best procedure, by interfering negatively on the
surrounding nature and suggesting instead the use of natural products as biological control.
The tale was used to collect, analyze, and interpret information by content analy-
sis (Bardin, 1997). This paper presents interpretations and meanings of the researched
teacher, regarding the essence of her imagination during the construction of the tale enti-
tled Um problema para dois compadres [A problem for two compadres], to work with
students on her classes of Science and Biology.

Research Context and Participants

The participating teacher has been working into the basic education system (students
between 15 to 17 years old) of Feira de Santana City, State of Bahia, Brazil, for 25 years, in
natural science and biology classes, in the country’s public school system.
The first author of this paper is a professor of the State of Bahia at the UEFS. She
teaches in graduate level on the following curricular components: Supervised Internship in
Biology Teaching; and Cultural Plurality and Inclusion in Science Teaching. In addition,
she is a professor in the graduate program in Teaching, Philosophy and History of Sciences
(UFBA and UEFS) and leads the Research Group on Ethnobiology and Teaching of Sci-
ences (GIEEC), where develops investigations on teaching and training of science teachers
for cultural diversity.
The second author is a teacher in the curricular component of Natural Sciences and
Biology at a state public school, located in the city of Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil.
Also, she is a doctoral student in the Program of Teaching, Philosophy, and History of Sci-
ences, a partnership between the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and the State Uni-
versity of Feira de Santana (UEFS), with mentorship by the first author of this paper.

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Imagination, Teacher’s Identity and Diversity

Table 1  Narrative that addresses the biological control of agricultural pests and the consequences of the use
of pesticides. Translated from Baptista and Silva (2017)

A problem for two compadres

Two compadres [close friends] meet at the park:
- [Pedro] Hi compadre! Long time no see you! How is my godson? And your wife?
- [José] They are well! It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, compadre! Tell me, the big city, what
is it like?
- [Pedro] Compadre, the big city is good, but I prefer the countryside because it’s quieter! Here we have
everything…
- [José] How about visiting my farm this weekend. So, we can talk
- [Pedro] Good idea! I mean: if it doesn’t get in the way, right?
- [José] You won’t disturb my friend; it will be a satisfaction! We are very considerate of you and there is
space for everyone
- [Pedro] We will go next Saturday morning, very early
- [José] Let’s have fresh milk, eat curd, fish from the river, and drink juice from my acerolas
- [Pedro] Please Compadre, no fishing! We must respect nature
In the Saturday morning…
- [Pedro] Anybody home? I arrived, compadre!
- [José] I’ll ask to serve some fresh milk and curd for us. At lunch, we will enjoy free-range chicken and
dulce de leche as dessert
The compadres ate lunch and then went to rest for a while. Before the break, a conversation emerged:
- [José] Look, my friend: the ants are attacking my plants; grass, vegetables, my trees, and acerola trees
can’t stand the aphids anymore! The leaf-cutting ants are killing everything! They leave the plants without
growth until they die. Of all this, compadre, the incredible thing is that they fly in droves! This happens
about once a year and then more and more ants appear… Anthills appear in every corner of the garden. A
kind of hole they make that really creates a bottom in the ground. It is an ugly situation!
- [Pedro] That is bad!
- [José] Let’s get some nap here in the hammock and then you can help me to take care of the ants and the
aphids, okay? I want to know if you have some tips. My friend, just talking about it makes me desperate.
I’m losing everything! And the aphids? Believe me, my friend, my acerola trees, which were beautiful,
now display all their leaves white, wrinkled, and without fruits. Only the fruits that we make juice here,
which the doctors say they have a lot of C vitamin, which is good to avoid the flu!
After the rest, the compadres went out to the outskirts of the garden talking:
- [José] Look compadre, I already went to buy some pesticides at the farmer’s store…
- [Pedro] These products are very dangerous, my friend, as well as being expensive. How do you use these
products?
- [José] I apply it directly to the pests…
- [Pedro] My Goodness! You will kill yourself and kill everyone!
- [José] Don’t tell me that compadre! But why?
- [Pedro] These products are dangerous; you must be very careful. When the cow eats grass, the poison
enters the cow’s body, contaminates the milk, the dulce de leche and even the cow’s poop contaminates
it! The chickens live grazing, eating ants, acerola fruits and contaminated grass. What’s more, when it
rains, the rain must wash everything into the river. Poor fishes! We can no longer swim or eat fish from
this river!
- [José] Are we going to get sick, compadre? Are we going to end up with nature? My God! What do I do?
How am I going to do now to get rid of pests, without harming nature?
- [Pedro] Compadre, compadre, don’t despair! Everything has a solution… I have some recipes from the big
city. It’s all natural, buddy!
- [José] Don’t tell me that you can buy this product in a drugstore?
- [Pedro] Much better than that! You won’t spend a single penny!

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 Baptista et al.

Table 1  (continued)

- [José] But this is very good! How much will you charge to give me these recipes?
- [Pedro] But what question is that? In doing so you even offend me!
- [José] But why compadre?
- [Pedro] We don’t hide these recipes. I insist on passing them on to everyone
- [José] How wonderful! So, I don’t want to leave the farm like I wanted anymore, right? Here I have
everything, but these plagues have been tormenting me! Now with your idea, everything will get better!
And compadre, as the recipes help agriculture, I had an excellent idea
- [Pedro] Tell me? What is it?
- [José] Let’s gather all my neighbors and teach them too
- [Pedro] Your idea is very good! It will help their lives because many people here are in need by the
pests… Look, my friend, I’m going to do better: in my region, the people put together a manual, a booklet
with these recipes. I guess I even have one in my suitcase. Wait a minute, I’ll look… I found it my friend.
Let’s read it together!
- [José] Yes, my friend! Let’s read it…
For leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex and Atta spp.):
To combat leaf-cutting ants, the farmer can seek help from birds that, in general, are excellent insect
predators. They can attack anthills, specifically new queens in the air or on the ground when digging
nests. The falcon (Polyborus plancus) is a good example of biological control for leaf-cutting ants.
It manages to ingest, on average, 37 kg of insects per year. Thus, it is very important not to kill these
animals, letting them to fly around agricultural spaces so that they can attack the ants. Chickens (Gallus
gallus domesticus) are also excellent predators and should be left free in agricultural spaces
For Aphids (Aphis spiroecola):
Ladybugs (Coccinella septempunctata) can be used to control aphids. Female ladybugs usually lay their
eggs on leaves and branches, and, after a few days, larvae appear and start predatory activities. In
adulthood, ladybugs also feed on aphids. Thus, to fight aphids, the farmer can place the ladybugs, which
are easily found in nature, at the base of the plant that is being attacked. Importantly, aphid control also
helps control ants, which feed on sweet substances. When aphids suck the sap of the plant, they release
these substances
The fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarizium anisopliae, which are available for sale, can also be used
to fight aphids because they cause disease in these insects and lead to death. Whenever possible, its
efficiency is much greater when applied after rain. It is important to place these organisms always mixed
with water and at the end of the afternoon, as the humidity favors the development of fungi

The third author is a collaborator of the present work and has a degree in Pedagogy,
from the Teacher Training Center of the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia
(UFRB). She is also a doctoral student in the Program of Teaching, Philosophy, and
History of Sciences (UFBA and UEFS). She teaches at the Bahian Federal Institute of
Education, Science and Technology (IFBa), campus Senhor do Bonfim (northeastern of
the state).

Results and Discussion

Five thematic categories resulted from the reading and analysis of the field diary, and the
theory of science education. Those thematic categories are (1) reflection on teaching prac-
tice; (2) mental representations in science teaching; (3) the teacher’s research as a develop-
ment of professional memory; (4) broadening the science teachers’ formation and imagina-
tion; and (5) working conditions and imagination development.

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Imagination, Teacher’s Identity and Diversity

Category 1: Reflection on Teaching Practice and Intercultural Dialogue

Reflections are relevant to science teachers on their teaching practice. These moments
are important for the selection and/or creation of pedagogical strategies that are scien-
tifically and culturally contextualized. Donald Schön (1983) states that to produce new
knowledge, the principle of reflexivity dialogues with practice itself, and it is necessary
to improve teaching action in a school’s daily life that is full of cultures. In this sense,
the teacher stated that.
[…] the nature. Initially, the interest in agriculture was for the own consumption,
but over time, humanity felt the need to increase production with economic inten-
tions, starting anti-ecological actions, as is the case of pesticides to control dis-
eases of large plantations, which end up impoverishing the soil. I understand that
it was a quick solution, but in the long term it brought and still brings a lot of
damage to the soil, to plants and to the humanity itself, which is contaminated.
So, I thought about the economic interests linked to public policies, the purchase
of large quantities of industrialized inputs that family farmers often cannot afford.
All of this allowed me to reflect on the importance of the practice of building a
pedagogical resource focused on the community’s reality, which is a possibility to
carry out an innovative pedagogical action that helps students to learn with mean-
ings. (Excerpt from field diary, 2009)
The excerpt above reveals that the teacher was concerned throughout the process
with the theme addressed in the short tale, seeking to generate spaces for dialogue with
students. She reflected on the fact that humanity is experiencing major environmental
problems arising from its own actions, influenced by different interests over time, as
in the case of agriculture based on the use of chemical inputs, high productivity, and
industrialization. As highlighted by Roel (2002), the industrialization of agriculture
conducted to environmental disasters, the exclusion of rural people, as well as the pro-
duction of food with residues that are harmful for health. According to the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2017), growth in the interest of
productivity contributed to the degradation of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity,
and the spread of cross-border plant and animal pests and diseases.
All these issues need to be discussed with students guiding to reflect on their own reali-
ties and to make conscious decisions about the use of pesticides. However, it is up to the
teacher to generate spaces and opportunities for this to happen. This requires reflection on
teaching. According to Freire (1997), the teacher who seeks to reflect his/her way of teach-
ing can carry out pedagogical strategies in dialogue with students, to facilitate their prac-
tice and learning. This statement is evident in the excerpt below narrated by the teacher:
For the short tale, I selected the themes referenced for science teaching. The selec-
tion of the specific topic to be addressed was made by dialogue with the students.
They could previously point out topics of greatest interest to the class. Through
dialogue and agreement, the students selected agricultural pests as the topic to be
worked on, because most of them are from traditional farming families. (Excerpt
from the field diary, 2009)
The teacher’s narrative clarifies that dialogue in the classroom provides an opportunity
to investigate the realities of students and what their interests are about a subject to be
studied, such as agricultural pests, which can be adhered to a teaching strategy of sciences.

13
 Baptista et al.

Dialogue in science education, according to Lopes (1999), is the exposure of the plural-
ity of reasons that lead individuals to think as they think, whether from a scientific point
of view, or from the cultural point of view. In dialogue, interlocutors concern on the expo-
sition of thoughts and negotiation of meanings, seeking to present the contexts of origin
and applicability of each way of knowing, and how they can or cannot be complementary.
Thus, in science classes dialogue will be intercultural when it involves not only the science
being taught but also the students’ cultural knowledge, which originates in the social envi-
ronments where they live.
The teacher reported how important was her imagination to address a problem that stu-
dents experience in their realities, and how science education can help to find answers and
solutions:
The dialogue with my students about what theme we would work on made me aware
of the problems they have in agriculture, which are agricultural pests. This enabled
the emergence of the imaginary, as a possible symbolic system, enabling the under-
standing of knowledge socialized at that time. (Excerpt from the field diary, 2009)
The teacher’s approach shows that imagination can be a means to create narratives that
help in the representation and understanding of students’ conceptions belonging to cultural
universes. Baptista and Silva (2017) argue that the narrative allows the presentation of eve-
ryday situations of individuals and, at the same time, opens possibilities to approximate
their knowledge to the scientific knowledge of biology.
This is important for teacher training itself because it is essential to reflect on new ways
of exercising the specific knowledge of the professional practice (Fávero et  al., 2013). It
becomes, at the same time, the learning and construction spaces of the teacher’s practical
thought.

Category 2: Mental Representations in Science Teaching

Science teachers are communicators and provokers of understanding about the scientific
content into their classes. Each teacher operationalizes mental representation (Bronowski,
1998) to plan and construct narratives, to organize his/her communication and simulate
what the student could talk about when presenting scientific themes. The teacher stated
that.
To generate a mental representation of the trajectory reported in the tale, I needed to
transform theoretical ideas of the fact into imaginary actions, carried out through fic-
tional characters that concretized the explanation in dealing with the theme of agri-
cultural pests. For example, I remembered that people in the countryside practice
long conversations about their lives, the problems they are experiencing and asking
each other for advice. So, I created two characters talking about life in the coun-
tryside, one of them describing his problem with leaf-cutting ants and aphids. This
character doesn’t know what to do to control those pests. I imagined presenting the
story in a descriptive way, on how ants attack plants, cutting leaves and destroying
their growth. The objective is to open spaces for teaching about the morphology of
insects, physiological aspects of cultivated plants and the use of chemical and biolog-
ical control, also to discuss how this interferes with the ecological balance of ecosys-
tems. I think that when we teach scientific content that is not interesting to students,
it is very difficult for them to be enthusiastic. (Excerpt from field diary, 2009)

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Imagination, Teacher’s Identity and Diversity

For Gurgel and Pietrocola (2007), the construction of knowledge by students should
begin from their realities, to ensure a relationship between their thoughts. In this sense,
philosophers and educators point out that imagination must act as a creative element to
teach scientific content, because it avoids the transmission of scientific knowledge dis-
sociated from realities, thus facilitating real understanding (Bronowski, 1998; Holton,
1979, 1996; Pietrocola, 2004). Considering that students need to learn science, due to the
increasingly scientific and technologically influenced world, but they must also learn about
science, developing criticality about how the scientific world works, its limits, and potenti-
alities (Longbottom & Butler, 1999).
The imagination is an inherent aspect of the human being and can be triggered in most
diverse educational activities, with purposes of teaching and learning, aiming to under-
stand a certain phenomenon through the creation of a representative and figurative model.
To Bronowski (1998), human thought is fundamentally the ability to generate mental rep-
resentations for the world’s elements, enabling us to relate to it not only through the senses
but also by means of symbolic constructions. Regarding these constructions, it is important
to consider that cultures are, in themselves, symbolic constructions that share meanings
among their members (Geertz, 2003). Thus, the tale based on preponderant factors and
present in the real life of the students favored the operationalization of the meanings repre-
sented in the constructed narrative.

Category 3: The Teacher’s Research as a Development of Professional Memory

and Consideration of Cultural Diversity

According to Nóvoa (1992), the teacher’s research serves to think and analyze pedagogi-
cally in the exercise of teaching. This type of research is constituted as a teaching experi-
ence (Gatti, 2008) encouraging the construction of memory, as one that encompasses the
experiences in a context, allowing the emergence of memories of something that affected
positively or negatively (Silva, 2014). Given this, the teacher stated that.
To build the story I sought to research some themes in the science field. This was a
moment that allowed me to remember my pedagogical practice, specifically, about
agricultural pests. I remembered that some students pointed this out when I worked
on the topic “plants”. I experienced the constitution of my memory and strengthened
my profession’s knowledge in school. I remembered that in my classes I talked about
plants using only botanical explanations and the blackboard to make representations,
when I could do these explanations using examples of local species. The students
could talk about what they know about morphologies, reproduction, physiological
and ecological aspects, etc. (Excerpt from the field diary, 2009)
It is understood that the narrative mentioned above deals with the consolidation of
research by the teacher, favoring moments of memories and consolidation of her forma-
tive remembrance during the realization of the tale. The researcher teacher is the one who
investigates his/her praxis and reflects on it to enhance it, making it dynamic and attrac-
tive (Pesce & André, 2012), being a dimension that makes up memory linked to all lived
experiences. Memory is composed of remembrances which the person narrates in a period,
from the self-awareness (Silva, 2014). Recollection comprises a past that provides attribu-
tions of meanings into the present, which re-signifies memory (Pesce & André, 2012).
The resignification of memory is a key factor for the consistency of teaching knowl-
edge. In this regard, Tardif (1991) emphasizes that teaching knowledge is given through

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 Baptista et al.

the teacher’s internal relations with his/her own practice. Thus, it is verified in the teach-
er’s field diary that the experience, as part of her memory, strengthened her professional
knowledge regarding the consideration of the students’ cultural knowledge and how this
can facilitate the teaching and learning processes. It is possible that through this knowledge
she has attributed meanings to her pedagogical practice and the scientific content taught,
because, as Tardif (1991) argues, in reflecting on practice, teachers can build new knowl-
edge and practices.

Category 4: Broadening Science Teachers’ Formation and Imagination to Deal

with Cultural Diversity

The use of imagination for the construction of pedagogical resources for school scientific
purposes must be guided by pre-defined paths, due to its objective, which is to communi-
cate science in a pedagogically based panorama (Zabala, 1998). This is noticeable in the
teacher’s argument: During the creation of the tale, I could reflect on the language used by
science, to manipulate it, to make it closer to the students’ understanding (Excerpt from
the field diary, 2009).
One of the main characteristics of the human psyche is the ability to deal with irreversi-
ble time (Valsiner, 1994). The teacher can present the ability to take back his/her knowledge
for the construction of new explanatory formats, with the purpose of formulating strategies
to describe scientific facts in the classroom. According to Lyra (2006), the human internal
capacity to bring the present and the past itself is based on the subject’s imagination that
can recover and create future possibilities. History and futures are available to the psychic
through imagination (Tateo, 2016; Zittoun, 2016; Zittoun & Cerchia, 2013). In the exer-
cise of imagination, the teacher resorts to his/her internal resources kept throughout his/her
career. These aspects favor the construction of strategy, models, and explanations.
The elaboration of new possibilities for teaching strategies is a way for the develop-
ment of continuing teacher training (Zabala, 1998), given that continuing education has the
role of enabling teachers to learn and motivate to perform their profession (Wengzynski &
Tozzeto, 2012). In this approach, the teacher reported that.
With the construction of the tale, I sought to know about the pedagogical aspects,
for example, what a short story should contain, or the methodological procedures
to perform pedagogical recontextualization, from the academic environment to the
school environment. This knowledge was important to continue my education and
my practice with autonomy. I believe that teacher autonomy also stems from when
the teacher recognizes that his/her action is not only important for the student, but for
himself/herself. (Excerpt from the field diary, 2009)
Continuing training focuses on the quality of teaching methodologies and recontextual-
izations. On the last excerpt, the teacher shows that the tale expanded her knowledge in the
pedagogical field, especially the methodological procedures and the pedagogical transposi-
tion, generating her continuing training. Marandino (2004) highlights that the recontextual-
ization of academic knowledge is something dynamic, involving perceptions and objectives
of teaching and learning. These ways of knowing fit into a set of specificities that gain
meaning by the subjects at school.
Pedagogical recontextualization implies knowing how to transmit scientific contents and
contextualizing them, which implies presenting different situations, involving or not scien-
tific knowledge. It is a way to promote professional teaching skills with meaning for students.

13
Imagination, Teacher’s Identity and Diversity

Teachers will feel qualified to respond in a more motivating way to questions arising from
different social and cultural contexts, curiosities, and the subjects’ needs. They modify their
teaching to be more effective and maintain enthusiasm for it (Craft, Hall & Costello, 2014).

Category 5: Working Conditions and Imagination Development

According to Gasparini et al. (2005), the working conditions are one of the major sources of
problems faced by teachers in many schools around the world, including the lack of suitable
spaces and teaching materials. In the case of teaching science and interculturality, textbooks
hardly allow approaches and contextualization related to local realities. This statement could
be identified in the teacher’s conceptions, as seen below:
It is very difficult to promote a culturally sensitive science education when the school
where we work does not provide us with the necessary conditions. When the resources
we have at our disposal do not help us to talk about the reality of our students. For
example, when the textbooks bring subjects that we cannot contextualize. This happens
a lot when we work on topics such as plants and animals. The examples on these books
could be from the biome where the school is located. We are in the Caatinga, a biome
that has very specific climatic characteristics and particularities, if textbooks bring local
examples, I think it would be easier for the student to understand when we talk about
adaptation, morphological, ecological, reproductive aspects, etc. But I know that we
teachers must be able to face difficult working conditions. For example, I’ve never seen
a hyacinth macaw, I mean the live animal, but I’ve seen it on the internet. So, as I know
it is an endemic bird in our region, I can imagine and create my own resources to show
which species are present in our biome, making associations with the knowledge that
students already have about this animal. I seek to learn from the students the legends,
songs, oral histories of their communities, and so I dialogue with scientific knowledge.
(Excerpt from the field diary, 2009)
That speech allows reflections on how issues on teachers’ working conditions caused prob-
lems in their practices. In this case, the teacher was able to explore the possibility of using her
imagination and creativity to minimize these problems and contributed to reforms in pedagog-
ical models and educational strategies to consider the cultural diversity of classrooms. This
contributes not only to pedagogical practice and teacher training but also to help their students
to be imaginative and creative towards interculturality. According to Caiman and Lundegård
(2018), imagination supports students in their expressions, whether verbal and/or non-verbal,
which facilitates interaction with the teacher and their classmates, allowing them to know dif-
ferent realities, have curiosities, new ideas, and ways of thinking and solving problems. In
addition, students can be proud of themselves and mastery of their cultures, for being able to
express and use their cultural knowledge.

Final Considerations

The five thematic categories indicate that imagination is an important element for the for-
mation of science teachers who wish to be sensitive to cultural diversity. It allows the inves-
tigation, creativity, and re-presentations of images of nature that can be used as resources for
establishing dialogue between knowledge and practices that are scientific and non-scientific.
The latter are inherent to the socio-cultural backgrounds of students. This, in turn, favors

13
 Baptista et al.

reflections on their own pedagogical practices and the search for new knowledge that will
focus on the development of skills and abilities on the innovative practices.
The process of reflection and construction of new knowledge is continuous, and it is an
important aspect into the life of human beings. It can happen when teachers could reflect
on their practice in the classroom at times of constructing a narrative story, as a means
of continuous teacher training. In this process, the context is given in consideration, cir-
cumstances, and meaning of what will be scientifically and culturally taught. It is impor-
tant to the teacher to engage in a process of breaking the boundaries between science and
imagination.
The tale developed by the participating teacher enlarged her imagination. It motivated
her attention to the importance of reflection on her practice, as a perspective of continuity
in favor of improvements in the quality of her classes. It became, at the same time, a place
and a moment for the teacher’s practical thinking.
The imagination can play a significant role in the teachers’ educational activities and
can be the basis for expanding their pedagogical abilities, with respect to and consid-
eration of cultural diversity present in classrooms. However, this can only happen if the
idea contained therein leads to new transformations in teaching methods and techniques,
which should aim for the relationship between theory and practice through dialogical
relationships.
Acknowledgements  To Luca Tateo, who in the condition of visiting professor of the graduate program of
Teaching, History, and Philosophy of Sciences (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil), instructed the course
“Knowledge and Imagination,” bringing information to a new look at teachers’ training sensitive to cultural
diversity, based on imagination and creativity; to professor Jorge Arnaldo Troche Escobar, for his careful
reading, ensuring a greater approximation between the meanings of the original Portuguese version and the
English translation.

Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding
author upon request.

Declarations 
Conflict of Interest  The authors declare no competing interests.

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