Impact of disinformation on the professional practice of geography teachers: fear and insecurity in the classroom

Abstract

Contemporary society is experiencing a process of information consumption anchored in immediacy and superficiality, overlapping development of critical reading and knowledge production. This process is facilitated by current technological and communicational means, which supported by cyberspace, expand physical space into virtual one, with new interaction ways. In this environment where intense and rapid consumption of information and products is emerging, another problem arises, dissemination of manipulated content, whose intention is to misinform. In this paper, we seek to shed light on problems that arise from this disinformation process, which are the fear and insecurity of Geography teachers in their professional performance. Reflection arises from doctoral research, exposing how teachers experience misinformation in their daily work and what tools they have for confronting it. The theme was problematized through theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1978, 1985, 1992, 2003, 2013; Jodelet, 2001, 2005; Abric, 1994, 1998, 2001), content analysis methodology (Bardin, 2010), and interviews and questionnaires applied to basic education teachers. Findings show that cyberspace (and within it, digital social networks) is a source of information for teachers and students, impacting on teaching professionalism, on teaching-learning process, on knowledge conception, on teacher-student relationship and on work conditions. Among the impacts there are an increase in violence, surveillance and control in teachers’ work, generating insecurity and resulting in a reduction in teacher autonomy.