HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: DIALOGUES BETWEEN PAULO FREIRE AND EDGAR MORIN TOWARD A TRANSFORMATIVE AND COMPLEX PEDAGOGY

Abstract

High school education in Brazil is undergoing a serious structural and epistemological crisis, as evidenced by high dropout rates, a lack of adequately qualified teachers, and curricula guided by a technocratic and pragmatic logic—such as that criticized in the BNCC. This reality stems from a Cartesian and fragmented pedagogical model, incapable of meeting students’ needs or preparing teachers for contemporary social dynamics. To overcome this limitation, this article brings together the theoretical frameworks of Paulo Freire and Edgar Morin. Freire’s Pedagogy of Liberation challenges “banking education” and the passive transmission of content, proposing a dialogical, critical, and emancipatory praxis. In this approach, the teacher acts as a transformative intellectual and the student as the protagonist of their own reality. Complementarily, Morin’s Complex Thought challenges compartmentalized knowledge, promoting transdisciplinarity, the reconnection of knowledge, and a reform of thought. Morin emphasizes the need for human understanding, the ecology of knowledge, and the capacity to confront the uncertainties of an unpredictable world. The convergence between these authors consolidates the concept of a “Pedagogy of Uncertainty” and resilience, in which Freire’s critical stance is combined with Morin’s systemic perspective. This synergy offers a solid ethical, political, and epistemological foundation for restructuring teacher training and practice in high school. It is concluded that the implementation of this pedagogy requires concrete changes in educational frameworks. In initial teacher education, the urgency of overcoming the division between subject-specific content and pedagogical disciplines through transdisciplinary projects and practicums grounded in “circles of culture” is emphasized. In continuing education, the creation of permanent spaces for collective reflection and the co-construction of knowledge is advocated, treating the educator as the agent of their own praxis. Thus, the integration of Freire’s and Morin’s philosophies emerges as a promising path for training professionals capable of guiding a profound educational and social transformation in Brazilian basic education.