Das páginas da fome ao fone: Podcast as a Critical Teacher Education Practice in a Distance Learning Letters Program

Abstract

Teacher education in distance learning faces the challenge of reconciling the democratization of access to higher education with academic quality. Large classes, high dropout rates, and the tendency toward standardized content weaken teacher mediation and threaten the specificity of language and literature degrees. This article addresses this issue through the analysis of a pedagogical practice carried out in the discipline of Lusophone Literatures, within a public university’s distance learning Letters program. The proposal consisted of the full reading of Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus (1960) and the production of 5- to 10-minute podcasts, in which students articulated literary, social, and historical aspects of the work while engaging in multimodal authorship. Drawing on Paulo Freire (2019), Roxane Rojo (2009), Michèle Petit (2019), and Teresa Colomer (2007), the study discusses the results: among the 57 podcasts analyzed, profiles ranged from descriptive reviews to artistic creations, reflecting different levels of critical appropriation. The findings suggest that, despite the structural limitations of distance education, practices such as podcasting can create spaces for dialogue and authorship, thereby contributing to the critical and creative formation of future teachers.