ABSTRACT

The article discusses the literacy teacher’s métier, emphasizing pedagogical resources and teaching gestures. To understand the educational dynamics of literacy, it brings data constructed in a research with literacy teachers inspired by the theoretical-methodological principles of the Clinic of Activity and resumes the notion of professional gesture to circumscribe the notion of teaching gesture. From a cultural-historical perspective, the analyzes make explicit the articulation between teaching gestures and technical-semiotic instruments and suggest that the complexity of the teaching activity is related to the process of instrumental genesis oriented towards the activity of the teacher and students in the literacy process.

Keywords
Literacy; Literacy Teacher; Technical Semiotic Instruments; Cultural Historical Perspective

RESUMO

O artigo problematiza o métier do professor alfabetizador, com destaque aos recursos pedagógicos e aos gestos de ensinar. Para tanto, com objetivo de compreender as dinâmicas educativas de alfabetização, traz dados construídos com professoras alfabetizadoras em pesquisa inspirada nos princípios teórico-metodológicos da Clínica da Atividade e retoma a noção de gesto profissional para circunscrever a noção de gesto de ensinar. Em uma perspectiva histórico-cultural, as análises explicitam a articulação entre gestos de ensinar e instrumentos técnico-semióticos, e sugerem que a complexidade da atividade de ensino está relacionada ao processo de gênese instrumental orientado à atividade do professor e dos alunos em processo de alfabetização.

Palavras-chave
Alfabetização; Professor Alfabetizador; Instrumentos Técnico-Semióticos; Perspectiva Histórico-Cultural

Introduction

This paper¹ 1 This paper is dedicated to the literacy teachers and my mother, with whom I met the intricacies of the craft and the first teaching gestures. problematizes the métier of the literacy teacher, with special attention to the teaching gestures and teaching resources, from the analysis of data constructed with a group of literacy teachers. Although the research² 2 Grants presented here was carried out before the COVID-19 pandemic, in a condition of face-to-face teaching, the analysis of the métier of the literacy teacher, the teaching gestures, and the intricacies of pedagogical literacy practices contributes to understanding the (im)possibilities of effecting pedagogical processes, either in the face-to-face model or in the remote teaching model.

At the current historical moment, the social isolation imposed by the pandemic undeniably caused important ruptures and discontinuities to the educational process. The emergency remote education situation, defined by the pandemic, has evidenced the precariousness and difficulties to develop pedagogical activities, especially for children in early childhood education or in the early stages of literacy (Dias, Smolka, 2021DIAS, Daniele Pampanini.; SMOLKA, Ana Luiza Bustamante. Das (im)Possibilidades de se alfabetizar e investigar em Condições de Isolamento Social. Revista Brasileira de Alfabetização, Florianópolis, ABAlf, n. 14, p. 228-244, 2021. Disponível em: https://revistaabalf.com.br/index.html/index.php/rabalf/article/view/495. Acesso em: 20 out. 2021.
https://revistaabalf.com.br/index.html/i... , among many). In addition to the difficulties of accessing equipment and internet of reasonable quality, conditions that strongly affect public school students, the organization of pedagogical work with children in early childhood education and the beginning of elementary school remains a major challenge: what are the demands and specificities of the literacy teacher’s work? How and what do teachers do when teaching – teaching gestures? How do they observe students and how do they adjust their own activity to mediate the students’ activity? How do they choose and recreate the resources and procedures to be implemented in the classroom?

Teaching gestures, resources, and technical-semiotic instruments in work situations

We take here the notion of professional gesture or gesture of métier as a reference to circumscribe the notion of teaching gesture. The gesture of métier can be understood as preexisting and characterizing the activity in a given field of work (Bronckart, 2006BRONCKART, Jean-Paul. Atividade de Linguagem, Discurso e Desenvolvimento Humano. Organização e tradução de Anna Rachel Machado; Maria de Lourdes M. Matencio. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2006.; 2009BRONCKART, Jean-Paul. Posfácio: Ensinar: um “métier” que, enfim, sai da sombra. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel; CRISTOVÃO, Vera Lúcia Lopes; ABREU-TARDELLI, Lília Santos (Org.). Linguagem e Educação: o trabalho do professor em uma nova perspectiva. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2009. P. 161-174.; Cizeron, 2010CIZERON, Marc. Le Geste Professionnel comme Concept et Outil d’analyse. In: CIZERON, Marc; GAL- PETITFAUX, Nathalie. Analyse des Pratiques: expérience et gestes professionnels. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses de l’Université Blaise Pascal, 2010. P. 257-268. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00811926. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-008... ; Clot, 1998CLOT, Yves. Le Travais sans l’homme? Pour une psychologie de milieux de travail et de vie. Paris: La Découverte & Syros, 1998.; 2007CLOT, Yves. De l’analyse des Pratiques au Développement des Métiers. Éducation et Didactique, Rennes, v. 1, n. 1, abr. 2007. Disponível em: http://educationdidactique.revues.org/106. Acesso em: 30 set. 2016.
http://educationdidactique.revues.org/10... ; 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010.; Clot; Faïta, 2000CLOT, Yves; FAÏTA, Daniel. Genre et Style en Analyse du Travail. Concepts et méthodes. Travailler, Paris, v. 4, p. 7-42, 2000. Disponível em: https://psychanalyse.cnam.fr/revue-travailler/presentation-et-sommaire/numero-4/theorie-genres-et-styles-en-analyse-du-travail-concepts-et-m-thodes--467242.kjsp. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2019.
https://psychanalyse.cnam.fr/revue-trava... ; Felix; Saujat, 2015FELIX, Christine ; SAUJAT, Frédéric. Le Métier d’enseignant: un impensé dans le rôle de l’établissement comme organisation apprenante?. In: LUC, Ria (Org.). Former les Enseignants au XXIe Siècle: établissement formateur et vidéoformation. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur De Boeck, 2015. P. 61-72. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01760558. Acesso em: 5 fev. 2017.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-017... ; Machado, 2004MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Londrina: Eduel, 2004.; 2007MACHADO, Anna Rachel. Por uma Concepção Ampliada do Trabalho do Professor. In: GUIMARÃES, Ana Maria de Mattos; MACHADO, Anna Rachel; COUTINHO, Antónia (Org.). O Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo: questões epistemológicas e metodológicas. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2007. P. 77-97; Roger, 2010ROGER, Jean-Luc. Refaire son Métier: essai de clinique de l’activité. Toulouse: Editions Érès, 2010. (Coleção Clinique du travail).; 2013ROGER. Jean-Luc. Metodologia e Métodos de Análise em Clínica da Atividade. Cadernos de Psicologia Social do Trabalho, São Paulo, v. 16, n. especial 1, p. 111-120, 2013. ; Roger; Ruelland, 2009ROGER, Jean-Luc; RUELLAND, Danielle. Le “Travail sur le Travail” un Instrument d’action Personnel et Collectif pour les Professionnels de l’éducation Nationale – L’encadrement par les professionnels eux-mêmes. Rapport remis au Snes, Paris, 2009. Disponível em: https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnamSnes2009imp.pdf. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnam... ; Saujat, 2004SAUJAT, Frédéric. O Trabalho do Professor nas Pesquisas em Educação: um panorama. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 3-34.; Sensevy, 2005SENSEVY, Gérard. Sur la Notion de Geste Professionnel. La Lettre de l’AIRDF, Lille, v. 1, n. 36, p. 4-6, 2005. Disponível em: https://www.persee.fr/doc/airdf_1776-7784_2005_num_36_1_1638. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/airdf_1776-778... ; Wallian, 2015WALLIAN, Nathalie. Sémiotique de l’agir enseignant en Eps: figures d’action et registres interprétatifs en milieu difficile. Carrefours de l’éducation, Amiens, v. 2, n. 40, p. 67-84, 2015. Disponível em: https://www.cairn.info/revue-carrefours-de-l-education-2015-2-page-67.htm. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2019.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-carrefours-... ; Yvon; Clot, 2004YVON, Frédéric; CLOT, Yves. Apprentissage et Développement dans l’analyse du Travail Enseignant. Psicologia da Educação, São Paulo, n. 19, p. 11-38, dez. 2004. Disponível em: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1414-69752004000200002. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?scr... ; among others).

When dealing with the professional gesture, Cizeron (2010)CIZERON, Marc. Le Geste Professionnel comme Concept et Outil d’analyse. In: CIZERON, Marc; GAL- PETITFAUX, Nathalie. Analyse des Pratiques: expérience et gestes professionnels. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses de l’Université Blaise Pascal, 2010. P. 257-268. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00811926. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-008... highlights two distinct theoretical orientations. The first, emphasizing the professional gesture towards action, proposes to discuss the gestures inscribed in the body, empirically observable, or the verbal dimension of gestures (Goigoux, 2007GOIGOUX, Roland. Un Modèle d’analyse de l’activité des Enseignants. Éducation et Didactique, Rennes, v. 1, n. 3, 2007. Disponível em: http://journals.openedition.org/educationdidactique/232. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2019.
http://journals.openedition.org/educatio... ; Sensevy, 2005SENSEVY, Gérard. Sur la Notion de Geste Professionnel. La Lettre de l’AIRDF, Lille, v. 1, n. 36, p. 4-6, 2005. Disponível em: https://www.persee.fr/doc/airdf_1776-7784_2005_num_36_1_1638. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/airdf_1776-778... , 2010SENSEVY, Gérard. Notes sur la Notion de Geste d’enseignement. Travail et Formation en Education, Marseille, n. 5, p. 1-16, 2010. Disponível em: https://journals.openedition.org/tfe/1038. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2019.
https://journals.openedition.org/tfe/103... ). In the field of Education Sciences and Didactics, Sensevy emphasizes action and defines the teaching gesture as a certain way of doing, articulated to the knowledge to be taught, to an educational project, and to semiotic tools that crystallize the encrusted knowledge and allow its expression. He states that “a teaching gesture depends, above all, on how a given situation produces, in the form of semiotic tools and related vocabularies, dense public meanings in knowledge” (Sensevy, 2010SENSEVY, Gérard. Notes sur la Notion de Geste d’enseignement. Travail et Formation en Education, Marseille, n. 5, p. 1-16, 2010. Disponível em: https://journals.openedition.org/tfe/1038. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2019.
https://journals.openedition.org/tfe/103... , p. 8, own translation).

The second orientation, which includes Work Psychology and, particularly, the Clinic of Activity (Clot, 2006CLOT, Yves. A Função Psicológica do Trabalho. Tradução de Adail Sobral. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2006.; 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010.), prioritizes the articulation with work. The professional gesture is linked to the know-how shared and inscribed in a professional genre, to the implementation of an identity, and to a type of professional activity. “The gesture is thus loaded with the lived sense of the situation by the actor who does it. […] The worker is then the author of his gestures of métier and these are, at the same time, bearers of the history of a craft and of the style of each individual” (Cizeron, 2010CIZERON, Marc. Le Geste Professionnel comme Concept et Outil d’analyse. In: CIZERON, Marc; GAL- PETITFAUX, Nathalie. Analyse des Pratiques: expérience et gestes professionnels. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses de l’Université Blaise Pascal, 2010. P. 257-268. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00811926. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-008... , p. 2, own translation).

According to Clot, the movement of appropriation of a professional gesture – generic and social since it is inscribed in the history of the craft – transposes the gesture of the other, an external source of learning that can be modified, by becoming an internal resource for the development of the worker, given the need to make micro-adjustments to the specific conditions of each context: “In fact, the gesture is presented in the professional activity a bit like the word in the language activity. […] Learning a gesture is to continually retouch it according to the heterogeneous contexts it traverses and at the core of those which it refracts” (Clot, 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010., p. 157, own translation).

In this article, we make use of the notion of gesture of métier as presented in the second orientation, thus seeking to analyze professional gestures in relation to the entire professional activity (Clot, 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010.; Clot; Fernandez; Scheller, 2007CLOT, Yves. De l’analyse des Pratiques au Développement des Métiers. Éducation et Didactique, Rennes, v. 1, n. 1, abr. 2007. Disponível em: http://educationdidactique.revues.org/106. Acesso em: 30 set. 2016.
http://educationdidactique.revues.org/10... ). As Roger and Ruelland put it (2009, p. 9, own translation)ROGER, Jean-Luc; RUELLAND, Danielle. Le “Travail sur le Travail” un Instrument d’action Personnel et Collectif pour les Professionnels de l’éducation Nationale – L’encadrement par les professionnels eux-mêmes. Rapport remis au Snes, Paris, 2009. Disponível em: https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnamSnes2009imp.pdf. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnam... , the concept of gesture of métier

Thus, in an analogy with the notions of gesture of métier and teacher’s métier (teaching work or craft) elaborated by the authors of Work Psychology, we highlight the teaching gesture to specify an aspect of the teaching activity. By understanding that “teaching work cannot be reduced to teaching, nor does the practice in the classroom exhaust all teaching practices” (Amigues, 2009AMIGUES, René. Le Travail Enseignant: prescriptions et dimensions collectives de l’activité. Les Sciences de l’Education - Pour l’Ère Nouvelle, Caen, v. 42, n. 2, p. 11-26, 2009. Disponível em: http://www.congresintaref.org/actes_pdf/AREF2007_Rene_AMIGUES_282.pdf. Acesso em: 5 set. 2015.
http://www.congresintaref.org/actes_pdf/... , p. 14, own translation), we understand that the teaching gesture integrates the teaching activity as one of its dimensions, such as work collectives, activity genres, rules of the work activity, and tools (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53.).

Regarding the teaching gesture of the literacy teacher, it is “important to work and argue more deeply and insistently about the social nature of this gesture, this work, this practice, which is the teaching/learning of the written form of language in the school institution” (Smolka, 2014SMOLKA, Ana Luiza Bustamante. Da Complexidade do Gesto de Alfabetizar: dimensões, condições, contradições. In: ENCONTRO DE PESQUISA EM EDUCAÇÃO DA REGIÃO SUDESTE – ANPEd, 11., 2014, São João del-Rei. Anais […]. São João del-Rei: ANPED, 14 out. 2014. 16 p., p. 3, own translation, italics in the original). The notion of teaching gesture is linked to the history of the development of the pointing gesture, a prototypical example described by Vygotsky (2000)VYGOTSKY, Lev S. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 3. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. Organização de by R. W. Rieber & J. Wollock. New York: Plenum Press, 1997b., since the two forms of gestures have in common the social and historically mediated processes of meaning.

The teaching gesture is doubly mediated, by the teachers and by the semiotic tools, to share and produce with the students the meanings about the object of knowledge; the pointing gesture is mediated by the mother who attributes meaning to the baby’s movements towards an object. The movements become an appropriated indicative sign for the baby – in this process, social mediation establishes semiotic mediation. “Something is required to serve as an object for full implementation of the gesture, and the meaning that this something acquires is essentially a secondary, derived meaning based on the primary meaning of the gesture” (Vygotsky, 1997VYGOTSKY, Lev S. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 4. The history of the development of higher mental functions. Organização de R. W. Rieber & J. Wollock. New York: Plenum Press, 1997a., p. 249). In this process, “[the] internalization of social relationships consists in a conversion of physical relationships between people into semiotic relationships within the person. In other words, something that occurs in the public world also happens in the private world” (Pino, 2005PINO, Angel. As Marcas do Humano: às origens da constituição cultural da criança na perspectiva de Lev S. Vigotski. São Paulo: Cortez, 2005., p. 112, own translation, italics in the original).

In both situations – pointing gesture and teaching gesture – social and semiotic mediation are a condition for the processes of production and appropriation of new signs and senses since both gestures embody the dimensions of meaning and appropriated intentional action in social relationships.

The gesture of métier maintains an intrinsic relationship with the tools or instruments of work; in the case of the teacher, we understand that the teaching gesture is inscribed in a pedagogical tradition and in the history of the craft, which provide numerous resources and means of teaching, such as manuals, pedagogical records, types of exercises, ways of using the blackboard³ 3 See in Nonnon (2000) the analysis of the daily professional gesture of writing – specific mode of public writing – on the chalkboard, understood as a material and symbolic object that mediates the work of the teacher and that of the students. , organizing the classroom space and managing the activities of students, etc. (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53.).

However, as Machado (2010, p. 3, own translation)MACHADO, Lucília. Instrumentos de Trabalho. In: OLIVEIRA, Dalila Andrade; DUARTE, Adriana Maria Cancella; VIEIRA, Lívia Maria Fraga. Dicionário de Trabalho, Profissão e Condição Docente. Belo Horizonte: Gestrado; FAE; UFMG, 2010. Disponível em: https://gestrado.net.br/verbetes/instrumentos-de-trabalho/. Acesso em: 8 dez. 2020.
https://gestrado.net.br/verbetes/instrum... states, “the working instruments do not act on their own. They are produced and given meaning by man and testify to his relationships with nature, the historical forms of social and cultural life.” Thus, although the instruments and resources available to the teacher carry the history of the craft, they only suggest possibilities, but do not determine exactly the teaching gesture, nor are they independent of the action of the teacher, since, at every teaching gesture, the métier is updated and renewed: “a gesture is released from the gesture of others, not by denying it, but by improving it” (Clot, 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010., p. 161, own translation). These observations about the relationships between resources and instruments, teaching gestures and instrumental genesis are fundamental for the criticism of the conceptions of teaching as an activity regulated and defined solely by the resources and didactic materials – booklets, textbooks, handout material –, as if such resources had autonomy and independence regarding the teacher’s activity and teaching gesture.

According to Rabardel (1995, p. 4, own translation), the instrument can be considered as a mixed entity, which binds the subject and the artifact at once, as “a material or symbolic artifact produced by the user or by others; one or more associated usage patterns resulting from an individual construction or the appropriation of pre-existing social schemes.” And, in situations in which the artifact becomes an instrument for action, what the author names as instrumental genesis occurs: an artifact is instituted as an instrument for the subject towards the objectives of his action only when in use.

The integration of instruments to the activity allows the emergence and transformation of new functions related to the use and control of the instrument, as it transforms the process and the particular aspects of all psychic processes, constituting what Vygotsky calls an instrumental act. In his studies on the operations in which certain signs act as auxiliary psychological means for the memorization process, he argues that the nature of the instrumental act constitutes the singularity of the psychic processes and defines instrumental acts as the “general control of the operation, using a sign as a means in the operation of remembering” (Vygotsky, 1997aVYGOTSKY, Lev S. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 4. The history of the development of higher mental functions. Organização de R. W. Rieber & J. Wollock. New York: Plenum Press, 1997a., p. 182). Still according to the author,

Unlike the work instrument, focused on transformations in the material world, operation with signs is “a means subjects have of influencing themselves, a means of self-regulation and self-control” (Friedrich, 2014FRIEDRICH, Janette. Vygotsky’s idea of psychological tools. In: YASNITSKY, Anton; VAN DER VEER; Rene; FERRARI, Michel (Org.). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. p. 47-62., p. 50). Thus, the signs produced and appropriated in social relationships perform the function of a psychological tool. “From this perspective, the social nature of psychological tools becomes a focal subject of psychology as we seek to understand which objects obtain this function over the course of human history; in which era, in what way” (Friedrich, 2014FRIEDRICH, Janette. Vygotsky’s idea of psychological tools. In: YASNITSKY, Anton; VAN DER VEER; Rene; FERRARI, Michel (Org.). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. p. 47-62., p. 53).

This said, let us return to the teaching gesture: the teacher’s activity is mediatized by technical-semiotic instruments that integrate the métier itself, which he appropriates and makes use of in the classroom. The teacher’s activity is doubly directed and addressed to their own activity and to the activity of the group of students. Therefore, the teaching gesture is also mediatizing – “an activity aimed simultaneously at its object and at the activity of others that focuses on this object, an activity that also intervenes in the relationships between them” (Clot, 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010., p. 190, own translation). As a mediated and mediating activity, the teaching gesture constitutes an interrelationship with several aspects: actions and psychological dimensions, concrete material conditions, available means and resources, the historical and social dimensions of the craft.

Regarding the literacy process, how are teaching gestures articulated with the resources available to the teacher? How and what resources assume the status of psychological tools for the teacher’s activity? How can the teaching gestures and the resources used by teachers become psychological tools for the students? To problematize these issues, we propose to analyze data from the research with literacy teachers.

The subtleties of teaching gestures in literacy practices

Focusing on understanding the educational dynamics of the literacy process, we present to the school our research proposal inspired by the theoretical-methodological principles of the Clinic of Activity (Clot, 2006CLOT, Yves. A Função Psicológica do Trabalho. Tradução de Adail Sobral. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2006., 2010, own translation), which “proposes ways of acting on the relations between activity and subjectivity, individual and collective” (Clot, 2017CLOT, Yves. Clínica da Atividade. Horizontes, Bragança Paulista, v. 35, n. 3, p. 18-22, 2017. Disponível em: https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/horizontes/article/view/526. Acesso em: 10 jan. 2022.
https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/hor... , p. 18, own translation).

The procedures of the Clinic of Activity seek to establish dialogical situations to address concrete and situated work actions by two methods: the instructions to a double and the self-confrontation sessions. “Both want to develop the psychological function of the collective to imagine new possibilities of thinking and acting. […] The collective changes location during the intervention, becoming a source to modify the work organization” (Clot, 2017CLOT, Yves. Clínica da Atividade. Horizontes, Bragança Paulista, v. 35, n. 3, p. 18-22, 2017. Disponível em: https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/horizontes/article/view/526. Acesso em: 10 jan. 2022.
https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/hor... , p. 21, own translation).

In the instructions to a double session, the individual is asked to explain to an interlocutor

The method of self-confrontation aims to provoke a dialogue about work situations, from the video recording as an “activity that will take place in an inner dialogue of the subject with himself, and with his interlocutors, who are the members of the working group to which he belongs” (Roger, 2013ROGER. Jean-Luc. Metodologia e Métodos de Análise em Clínica da Atividade. Cadernos de Psicologia Social do Trabalho, São Paulo, v. 16, n. especial 1, p. 111-120, 2013. , p. 114, own translation). For the research at the school, simple self-confrontation sessions, where each teacher watched and commented with the researcher recorded excerpts selected by her, and crossed self-confrontation sessions, in which the pairs of teachers watched and commented with each other and with the researcher the recorded excerpts selected by them, were proposed⁴ 4 Given the limits and focus of this article, we suggest consulting the theoretical-methodological basis and the detailed description of the procedures of the research in Nogueira (2021). .

After the first contact with the management team of the municipal school where the research was conducted, the group of teachers from the initial grades of the Elementary School (ES) was consulted and expressed interest in discussing literacy practices. With the agreement of the group, we explained the activities we intended to develop throughout the school year in a meeting in which eight teachers from the ES classes from 1^st to 5^th grade confirmed interest in participating and authorized the researcher to film activities in their classrooms⁵ 5 Research approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UNICAMP, Approval .

Given the unforeseen events common to the daily school-life and the need to reschedule activities, it was possible to accompany six teachers – two from each class from 1^st to 3^rd year of the ES. During the school year, 28 activities were carried out with the teachers (observation sessions, interviews, and meetings – individually, in pairs and collectively) in the school environment and during the teachers’ working hours. Before the end of the school year, all teachers of the initial grades of the ES were invited to a general meeting aimed at sharing the overview of literacy practices, especially the forms of knowledge systematization and the technical-semiotic instruments proposed by the teachers.

At first, considering the procedures of instructions to a double (Clot, 2006CLOT, Yves. A Função Psicológica do Trabalho. Tradução de Adail Sobral. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2006.), the teachers were invited to describe details of their work with the students, individually or in pairs. In these meetings, teachers and researchers defined the day and/or a specific didactic activity to be observed and filmed by the researcher. All video recordings were delivered to each teacher, so that they could select excerpts to be seen and commented, at first, with the researcher and, later, also with the teacher from another class in the same grade, according to the simple self-confrontation and crossed self-confrontation procedures.

For this article, we selected the recordings of situations with the participation of three teachers: T1, 2^nd grade teacher, with more than five years of teaching experience; and 3^rd grade teachers: T2, with less than three years of teaching experience, and T6, with more than ten years of teaching experience. During the 1^st semester of school, when the first observations and interviews were made, the classes were characterized as follows by the teachers: most of the 2^nd year students were in the initial literacy process and each of the two 3^rd grade classes had about ten illiterate students. Note that the teachers participating in the research proposed to promote literacy from texts and did not use booklets in the literacy process.

The following analyses bring excerpts from interviews and meetings with teachers (T1, T2, and T6) and the researcher (RE). Formed by extensive discursive sequences, the selected recordings were delimited considering the situation of verbal interaction that allowed contextualizing and understanding the discussion of a given topic or event (Bakhtin, 1986BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem. Tradução de Michel Lahud; Yara F. Vieira. São Paulo: Hucitec, 1986., 1997BAKHTIN, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Estética da Criação Verbal. Tradução de Maria Ermantina G. G. Pereira. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1997.). The discursive sequences are part of the set of video and/or audio recordings, transcribed according to an adaptation of the standards described by Castilho and Preti (1987)CASTILHO, Ataliba Teixeira de; PRETI, Dino (Org.). A Linguagem Falada Culta na Cidade de São Paulo: materiais para seu estudo. São Paulo: T.A. Queiroz; FAPESP, 1987. (Projeto de Estudo da Norma Lingüística Urbana Culta de São Paulo – Projeto NURC/SP. Volume II: Diálogo entre dois informantes).⁶ 6 In the transcriptions, the occurrences are flagged as follows (Castilho and Preti, 1987): Misunderstanding of words or segments ( ); Hypothesis of what was heard or what was omitted in speech (hypothesis); Truncation /; Pause …; Emphatic intonation - capital letters; Superposition and concurrency of voices[; Indication that speech has been taken or interrupted (…); Literal quotations or text readings “ ”; Clipping or interruption of transcription […]; Descriptive comments of the transcriber (( )). .

Throughout the research, the choice of indirect procedures of the instructions to a double session and the self-confrontation to provoke the emergence of dialogical situations allowed the articulation between intervention, research and training (Nogueira, 2021NOGUEIRA, Ana Lúcia Horta. Como analisar o Métier do Professor Alfabetizador? Contribuições teórico-metodológicas da perspectiva histórico-cultural e da Clínica da Atividade. Horizontes. Bragança Paulista, v. 39, p. 1-27, 2021. Disponível em: https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/horizontes/article/view/1266. Acesso em: 10 jan. 2022.
https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/hor... ). Similarly to several authors who follow the principles of the Clinic of Activity, we emphasize that the research situation establishes and qualifies the dialogue between the teachers and the researcher who, knowing the métier of the literacy teacher, makes comments and inquires about specific aspects of the activity. Thus,

The different intervention possibilities of teachers with the students during the literacy process were a very present aspect in interviews and meetings with the teachers participating in the research. As the discursive sequences presented below allow to problematize, the teachers involved had different ways of organizing literacy activities and assisting their students.

Discursive sequence 1 – Initial meeting with T2 (3rd year ES):

In the first meeting with T2, the teacher commented on the organization of literacy work and student activity, a theme that reappeared a few weeks later, in simple self-confrontation.

Discursive sequence 2 – Simple self-confrontation session with T2 (3^rd year ES):

In the initial interview and the simple self-confrontation, T2 reported the use of some teaching strategies during writing activities with the illiterate students in her ES 3^rd grade class: ask the student to “think about the letter”, “look at the alphabet” (exposed above in the blackboard), “identify the letter” or make the correction “writing what’s right below.” When mentioning the correction, the teacher is concerned with teaching the correct spelling of the words, saying that she “writes what’s right below” the text of the students.

The topic of correcting the written production of the child is also addressed by T6 in the initial interview.

Discursive sequence 3 – Initial meeting with T6 (3^rd year ES):

When commenting on how they intervene in the written production of students, T2 says “write what is correct below the child’s text”; T6 reports writing/typing the text that is projected as the child reads. What are the differences between the teaching gestures of the teachers? How is the process of developing knowledge about writing mediated by them?

Although T2’s actions refer to part of the prescriptions and ways of acting relevant to the métier of the literacy teacher, such as spelling and indicating the letters, her descriptions have few semiotic resources and strategies to mediate the teaching process. The teaching procedures reported by T2 indicate only the letters of the alphabet exposed above the blackboard and the copy of the correctly written word “below the child’s text” as sources of consultation.

When the researcher asks if everyone already knew the name and sound of the letters of the alphabet, the teacher clarifies that she had presented the letters of the alphabet, establishing relationships with the initial letters of words. In addition to the alphabet above the blackboard and some drawings and small texts from the students, displayed on another wall of the classroom, there were no posters with texts, lists of words or other productions that could serve as a source of consultation and comparison for students in the process of literacy. The teacher’s actions seem to be circumscribed by the notion that children learn to write by thinking alone based on the exposed alphabet or copying words. In this sense, the correction of writing can overlap and occupy the place of other forms of teaching.

In contrast, T6’s report on the writing situation and the collective correction of the text allows us to see other procedures of teaching and clarifying characteristics of the written form of language. The situation described is configured as a teaching moment for the whole class, the teacher assumes the role of scribe of the text that is projected, she writes for her students and together with them (Vygotsky, 2000VYGOTSKY, Lev S. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 3. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. Organização de by R. W. Rieber & J. Wollock. New York: Plenum Press, 1997b.). The teacher’s teaching gesture establishes very peculiar teaching relationships, she (re)organizes the resources and means of work, articulating correction and teaching, which become complementary and interdependent activities. She teaches by using countless gestures – to point, ask, draw attention to details of the writing: “I ask… I ask… I ask… sometimes I write wrong on purpose.” Also, as part of the resources available to students in the process of literacy, there were several posters displayed on the walls of the classroom, such as lists of names and date of birth of the students, list of words according to spelling regularities, wall newspaper, panel of curiosities and new knowledge. Thus, behind T6’s actions, it seems to be the notion of her role to organize resources and promote the development of her students, that is, the teacher’s approach as “activity of conception and organization of a means of work is certainly oriented to the student’s activity, but also to the teacher, who will be the executor of his own conception” (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53., p. 45, own translation).

Teaching gestures, resources and tools in literacy practices

To broaden the understanding of the teaching gestures articulated to the resources and instruments in the métier of the literacy teacher, let us move on to T1’s comments during the simple self-confrontation interview.

Discursive sequence 4 – Simple self-confrontation session with T1 (3^rd year ES):

T1’s classroom also had several posters with written texts exposed on the walls, with students’ names, birthdays list, daily and weekly routine, calendar. The teacher’s comment about the use of images on the poster – “we can even put some fruits randomly” – led to the discussion about the function that the drawing could have for children to memorize a list of words, which would serve as a source of consultation, comparison and reflection about writing. In this sense, when she seeks to deliberately organize semiotic resources to teach those “who are having most difficulty”, T1 articulates and adjusts her own teaching activity to the activity and development of students.

The teacher’s attitude bespeaks the need to consider the multiple addressing of the teaching activity, which “is not only about knowing how a teacher manages classroom interactions, but how he organizes the means of work that mobilizes the whole group/class” (Souza-e-Silva, 2004, p. 93, own translation), considering the different rhythms and processes of the students’ development.

Note that T1’s concern, when proposing the elaboration of a poster, is based on her observations on the student’s development process. “Thus, defining the work of the teacher in class establishes the contour of the profession’s practice and its difficulties and also stresses the non-coincidence between teaching time and learning time. Teaching is not to make someone learn immediately and instantly” (Souza-e-Silva, 2004, p. 93, own translation, italics in the original). Therefore, the need to adapt to the different moments of development of the students, which requires subtle and refined adjustments according to the child and the activity, guides their form of intervention: What and how to teach? What is important to point out and highlight to the student? Which resources to use?

These same questions about the organization of teaching strategies and resources permeate T6’s comments, as follows.

Discursive sequence 5 – Initial meeting with T6 (3rd year ES):

When the researcher asks the teacher what forms of mediation (term used by T6) are present in the activities, she enumerates a set of actions focused on the child’s activity: alphabet for consultation related to images, use of texts to memorize words, aid for reading and to compare words with the same sound or letters. Among the resources indicated, T6 highlights the presence of pieces of spare letters for writing activities and the letters of the alphabet with picture and reiterates that she always provides copies for the students and that “at the time of reading, the alphabet is on the side.”

It is interesting to resume the simple self-confrontation interview when T6 explains the use of another resource for the literacy process.

Discursive sequence 6 – Simple self-confrontation session with T6 (3rd year ES):

Considering the difficulty of some students to delimit the words in the texts, T6 proposes that they reassemble a known text from the words isolated on strips of paper. This situation can be taken as a typical example of the need of the teacher to adjust the activity from the observations of the development indicators of her students. Regarding the analysis of the activity, therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the “importance of tools in the interaction between a subject and his task, not only to increase the efficiency of the gestures, but also as a means of reorganizing his own activity” (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53., p. 44, own translation). The teacher’s comments on the organization of literacy work bespeak the complexity of the teacher’s task to effectively adjust the student’s activity and her own, by choosing certain means to teach, resources that can be converted into technical-semiotic instruments to mediate the students’ activity.

As previously stated, the teaching gesture constitutes a mediated and mediating activity, given the double addressing of the activity, oriented to the teacher’s own activity and to the students’ activity (Clot, 2010CLOT, Yves. Trabalho e Poder de agir. Tradução de Guilherme J. de F. Teixeira; Marlene M. Z. Vianna. Belo Horizonte: Fabrefactum, 2010.). Regarding the reported situation, we can say that T6’s activity is mediatized by the selection of a resource and a strategy for pedagogical mediation. And, because it also addressed the students’ activity, the gesture of teaching is simultaneously a mediating activity. In this situation, the pedagogical resource selected by the teacher – words on strips of paper – mediates the teaching activity and, since the pedagogical resource shows the limit of the words of a text, it can become “a means subjects have of influencing themselves” (Friedrich, 2014FRIEDRICH, Janette. Vygotsky’s idea of psychological tools. In: YASNITSKY, Anton; VAN DER VEER; Rene; FERRARI, Michel (Org.). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. p. 47-62., p. 50) as a mediating tool of the students’ activity.

T1’s and T6’s comments on the selection and presentation of resources and the constant adjustments in their teaching task also refer us to the question of instrumental genesis, previously discussed (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53.; 2009; Clot, 2006CLOT, Yves. A Função Psicológica do Trabalho. Tradução de Adail Sobral. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2006.; Rabardel, 1995RABARDEL, Pierre. Les Hommes et les Technologies; approche cognitive des instruments contemporains. Paris: Armand Colin, 1995. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01017462. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-010... ; 2005RABARDEL, Pierre. Instrument, Activité et Développement du Pouvoir d’agir. In: LORINO, Philippe; TEULIER, Régine. Entre Connaissance et Organisation: l’activité collective. Paris: La Découverte, 2005. P. 251-265. (Coleção Recherches). Disponível em: http://www.cairn.info/entre-connaissance-et-organisation-l-activite-coll---page-251.htm. Acesso em: 6 jun. 2019.
http://www.cairn.info/entre-connaissance... ). In his studies on work, Rabardel presents the notion of instrumental genesis, analyzing that, due to the specificity of the task to be performed, workers recreate and select certain artifacts – and appropriates them – which may constitute instruments to enable their activity.

An artifact gains the status of an instrument during the activity (Clot, 2006CLOT, Yves. A Função Psicológica do Trabalho. Tradução de Adail Sobral. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2006.; Rabardel, 2005RABARDEL, Pierre. Instrument, Activité et Développement du Pouvoir d’agir. In: LORINO, Philippe; TEULIER, Régine. Entre Connaissance et Organisation: l’activité collective. Paris: La Découverte, 2005. P. 251-265. (Coleção Recherches). Disponível em: http://www.cairn.info/entre-connaissance-et-organisation-l-activite-coll---page-251.htm. Acesso em: 6 jun. 2019.
http://www.cairn.info/entre-connaissance... ). When preparing a poster or using the words written on strips of paper, therefore, the teachers use and make available to the students certain resources that instrumentalize the teaching gesture and provide the (re)organization of their own activity, which, in turn, aims to organize the students’s activity. These situations lead us to reaffirm Vygotsky’s argument about the relevance of the construction of instrumental acts, for the emergence and transformation of new psychic processes. Although the teacher selects a generic resource that integrates the collective memory of the literacy teacher’s métier, only she knows the students’ development process and can recognize the objectives and adjustments necessary for the teaching gestures. In this sense, the appropriation and recreation of teaching gestures and technical-semiotic instruments are affected by the process of instrumental genesis (Rabardel, 1995RABARDEL, Pierre. Les Hommes et les Technologies; approche cognitive des instruments contemporains. Paris: Armand Colin, 1995. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01017462. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-010... ) oriented to the teacher and to the artifacts that mediate the students’ activity. “The appropriation of artifacts as instruments in use situations is conceptualized as an ‘instrumental genesis’, which transforms the organization of the subject’s activity, the tasks they self-attribute, and the artifact’s characteristics” (Folcher, 2003FOLCHER, Viviane. Appropriating Artifacts as Instruments: when design-for-use meets design-in-use. Interacting with Computers, Oxford, v. 15, n. 5, p. 647-663, out. 2003. Disponível em: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0953543803000572. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2019.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar... , p. 648).

And also regarding the process of instrumental genesis, in view of the mediating role of artifacts and resources, it is essential to analyze the “process by which the subject gives them the status of means to achieve the objectives of their action […] productive dimension of the activity, the subjects develop activities of elaboration of psychological and material instruments for a constructive purpose” (Folcher, 2003FOLCHER, Viviane. Appropriating Artifacts as Instruments: when design-for-use meets design-in-use. Interacting with Computers, Oxford, v. 15, n. 5, p. 647-663, out. 2003. Disponível em: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0953543803000572. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2019.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar... , p. 648, own translation). This is the process of instrumentalization (Folcher, 2003FOLCHER, Viviane. Appropriating Artifacts as Instruments: when design-for-use meets design-in-use. Interacting with Computers, Oxford, v. 15, n. 5, p. 647-663, out. 2003. Disponível em: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0953543803000572. Acesso em: 30 abr. 2019.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar... ; Hila, 2019HILA, Cláudia Valéria Doná. Teoria da Instrumentação e a Formação Inicial de Professores de Português. UniLetras, Ponta Grossa, UEPG, v. 32, n. 1, 61-76, 2010. Disponível em: https://www.revistas2.uepg.br/index.php/uniletras/issue/view/239/showToc Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.revistas2.uepg.br/index.php/... ; Rabardel, 1995RABARDEL, Pierre. Les Hommes et les Technologies; approche cognitive des instruments contemporains. Paris: Armand Colin, 1995. Disponível em: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01017462. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-010... ), in which the external resources developed to transmit the content of a discipline begin to regulate and effectively transform the students’ activity (Dolz; Moro; Pollo, 2000DOLZ, Joaquim; MORO, Christiane; POLLO, Antonella. Le Débat Régulé: de quelques outils et de leurs usages dans l’apprentissage. Repères, Lyon, n. 22, p. 39-59, 2000. Disponível em: http://ife.ens-lyon.fr/edition-electronique/archives/reperes/web/fascicule.php?num_fas=278 Acesso em: 21 maio 2017.
http://ife.ens-lyon.fr/edition-electroni... ; Schneuwly, 2000SCHNEUWLY, Bernard. Les Outils de l’enseignant: un essai didactique. Repères, Lyon, n. 22, p. 19-38, 2000. Disponível em: http://ife.ens-lyon.fr/edition-electronique/archives/reperes/web/fascicule.php?num_fas=278. Acesso em: 21 maio 2017.
http://ife.ens-lyon.fr/edition-electroni... ). Instrumentalization process that converts resources and means of teaching into technical-semiotic instruments that, once appropriated, guide and mediate the psychological activity.

Final considerations: The complexity of the work of literacy teachers

How do teachers organize their literacy practices? How and with what resources do they teach their students during writing activities? What defines and how is constituted the métier of the literacy teacher? Based on these questions, we seek to understand the details and complexity of teaching gestures (Smolka, 2010SMOLKA, Ana Luiza Bustamante. Ensinar e significar: as relações de ensino em questão ou das (não)coincidências nas relações de ensino. In: SMOLKA, Ana Luiza Bustamante; NOGUEIRA, Ana Lúcia Horta. Questões de Desenvolvimento Humano: práticas e sentidos. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2010. P. 107-128.) and their implications to the organization of literacy practices and the process of appropriation of writing by the students.

In a historical-cultural perspective, the analyses presented suggest the relevance, for organizing the teaching activity, of semiotic instruments as auxiliary psychological means for the child in reading and writing activities – mediatized and mediatizing instruments.

When problematizing the appearance of a series of artificial devices aimed at mastering the psychic processes themselves during the historical development of man, Vygotsky (1997b, p. 85)VYGOTSKY, Lev S. The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 3. Problems of the theory and history of psychology. Organização de by R. W. Rieber & J. Wollock. New York: Plenum Press, 1997b. states: “Psychological tools are artificial formations. By their nature they are social and not organic or individual devices. They are directed toward the mastery of [mental] processes – one’s own or someone else’s – just as technical devices are directed toward the mastery of processes of nature.”

From this point of view, therefore, the teaching activity would be totally related to instrumental genesis, (re)elaboration and use of semiotic instruments that allow the teachers to organize their activity and means of work that, in turn, will organize the students’ activity. In teaching, psychological tools would be the means for transforming the way of acting, whose use radically restructures all functions of behavior (Schneuwly, 2008SCHNEUWLY, Bernard. Vygotski, l’ecole et l’écriture. Cahiers de la Section des Sciences de l’Education, Genebra, n. 118, out. 2008. Disponível em: https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:18580. Acesso em: 22 maio 2017.
https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:1... ).

In the situations described the teachers explore and teach the various semiotic aspects and the functioning of the written language (Geraldi, 2014GERALDI, João Wanderley. Por que Práticas de Produção de Textos, de Leitura e de Análise Linguística? In: SILVA, Lílian Lopes Martin da; FERREIRA, Norma Sandra de Almeida; MORTATTI, Maria do Rosário Longo (Org.). O Texto na Sala de Aula: um clássico sobre o ensino de língua portuguesa. Campinas: Autores Associados, 2014. P. 207-222.; Goulart, 2013GOULART, Cecília Maria Aldigueri. Processos de Alfabetização para quem? In: NOGUEIRA, Ana Lúcia Horta (Org.). Ler e escrever na Infância. Campinas: Leitura Crítica, 2013. P. 99-114.; 2014GOULART, Cecília Maria Aldigueri. Aspectos Semióticos da Aprendizagem Inicial da Escrita. In: GOULART, Cecília Maria Aldigueri; WILSON, Victoria. Aprender a Escrita, aprender com a Escrita. São Paulo: Summus, 2014. P. 21-42.; Smolka, 1989SMOLKA, Ana Luiza Bustamante. A Criança na Fase Inicial da Escrita: a alfabetização como processo discursivo. São Paulo: Cortez; Campinas: Ed. Unicamp, 1989.). The observations and comments of the teachers bring a small overview of the variety of teaching gestures, pedagogical resources and technical-semiotic instruments, elements interwoven in teaching relationships during the literacy process.

The attention and care of teachers in the interaction of these elements lead us to reaffirm Amigues’s position on the complexity of the teaching work.

The activities of conception, organization, and regulation of different situations make the teacher an actor, a producer of meaning of situations of completion of his own action that does not correspond absolutely to the image of executor or profession of medium importance that is usually attributed to him (Amigues, 2004AMIGUES, René. Trabalho do Professor e Trabalho de Ensino. In: MACHADO, Anna Rachel (Org.). O Ensino como Trabalho: uma abordagem discursiva. Tradução de Anna Rachel Machado. Londrina: Eduel, 2004. P. 35-53., p. 52, own translation).

The pedagogical practices described by the teachers bring subtleties related to the teaching gesture, to the smallest details and peculiarities of the teacher’s action, to the adjustments caused by observing the students, to the personal ways of acting from combining different ways of doing, the usual and/or prescribed gestures, inspired by colleagues, by didactic instructions, among other instances (Roger; Ruelland, 2009ROGER, Jean-Luc; RUELLAND, Danielle. Le “Travail sur le Travail” un Instrument d’action Personnel et Collectif pour les Professionnels de l’éducation Nationale – L’encadrement par les professionnels eux-mêmes. Rapport remis au Snes, Paris, 2009. Disponível em: https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnamSnes2009imp.pdf. Acesso em: 2 maio 2019.
https://www.snes.edu/IMG/pdf/RapportCnam... ).

The métier is not sedentary; on the contrary, it migrates between different records – impersonal, transpersonal, interpersonal and personal (Clot, 2007CLOT, Yves. De l’analyse des Pratiques au Développement des Métiers. Éducation et Didactique, Rennes, v. 1, n. 1, abr. 2007. Disponível em: http://educationdidactique.revues.org/106. Acesso em: 30 set. 2016.
http://educationdidactique.revues.org/10... , 2017CLOT, Yves. Clínica da Atividade. Horizontes, Bragança Paulista, v. 35, n. 3, p. 18-22, 2017. Disponível em: https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/horizontes/article/view/526. Acesso em: 10 jan. 2022.
https://revistahorizontes.usf.edu.br/hor... ). The development of professional gestures is related to the fact that any work activity has social and cultural origins, even the teaching activity, commonly considered individual and isolated.

The métier, as a structured and structuring totality, is constituted at the same time that the work is carried out. It is all in the sense that it is a set of components built by circumstances that are updated in situation, which can be translated into rules, tastes, values, techniques, standards […] The métier is both the conservation of practices and the source for the activity to face the prescription. (Durand, 2015DURAND, Marc. Conclusion: formation et analyse du travail dans le champ de l’education. In: BORER, Valérie Lussi; DURAND, Marc; YVON, Frédéric (Org.). Analyse du Travail et Formation dans les Métiers de l’education. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur, 2015. P. 239-256. Disponível em: https://www.furet.com/media/pdf/feuilletage/9/7/8/2/8/0/4/1/9782804194079.pdf. Acesso em: 5 fev. 2017.
https://www.furet.com/media/pdf/feuillet... , p. 250, own translation).

As our analyses seek to explain, the complexity of the work of literacy teachers is precisely in the possibility of (re)creation and constant adjustment of teaching gestures, in the process of instrumental genesis contingent on the different records and multiple dimensions of the activity.

Among these dimensions, in addition to the concrete historical conditions and the knowledge of the métier itself, we highlight the daily observation of the indicators of the progression of the students’ development as one of the primary references for the process of instrumental genesis. The definition of the contours of teaching relationships and teaching gestures in the literacy process requires accompanying the students to know how they perform writing activities, what are the difficulties they present, what they consult in search of what information for writing, among other aspects.

In contemporary times, in the face of fierce debates about home schooling, remote education, curriculum standardization, handout didactic material, standardized evaluations, disqualification and intensification of teaching work, among other forms of attack on the (principle of) public education, problematizing who gains with the increase of the inequalities that these movements have produced is essential (Laval, 2019LAVAL, Christian. A Escola não é uma Empresa: o neoliberalismo em ataque ao ensino público. Tradução de Mariana Echalar. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2019.). In this sense, evidencing the centrality and complexity of the work of literacy teachers is a defense of public education.

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