THE EDUCATION OF EDVCATORS: WHAT EDUCATION IS THAT?

Abstract

Teacher educators for the teaching of Mathematics are those professors who -in teachers Education and Mathematics Graduations Courses, Post-graduation, enrichment and development courses, etc - work with initial!continual education and professional qualifications of Mathematics teachers. These professors have different backgrounds when it comes to origin, manner and place in which their own education took place. Such education is complex and diverse if one considers interest fields, academic experience and professional history of each professor. Nevertheless, most of this education takes place in courses and contexts similar to those in which the professors perform. As professors, the educators possess and produce knowledge of and about Mathematics and didactic-pedagogical knowledge which in educational opportunities enable learners, among other aspects, to bring theory and practice c/oser, to end the isolation and distance between disciplines with specific Mathematica/ content and pedagogical disciplines, and to build meanings in the teaching of Mathematics. ln view of the changes witnessed today regarding our understanding of the role of Mathematics teachers and the institutionalization and professionalization of their education, it is our duty to keep discussing the characteristics of the knowledge required from the professor who educates Mathematics teachers, the current challenges this professor has to face, and the formal and informal contexts where his professional knowledge is generated. ln arder to do that, facts and processes from our own experiences as educators will be taken as references taking into account that the experiences of each one of us reveal a stage and possible stages of this education.