The Relationship between Formal Education and Non‑Formal Education: A Descriptive and Analytical Review of the Publications about Astronomy Education in Journals and Events Related to Science Teaching in the Brazilian Context

Abstract

The present research aims to analyze the publications related to astronomy education that discusses the interface between formal education (FE) and non-FE (NFE) at scientific events and a journal in the Brazilian context. These events were the National Symposium on Astronomy Education, the National Meeting on Research in Science Education (ENPEC), and the National Symposium on Physics Teaching. We also analyzed the journal “Latin American Journal of Astronomy Education” (RELEA). The objective was to understand how the approach between FE and NFE in the teaching of astronomy is constructed. The delimitation of the analyses covering the period 2001–2014 coincided with the constitution of Area 46 by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), which regulates postgraduate programs in Brazil. In a theoretical-methodological aspect, the ideas of content analysis proposed by Bardin (2011) were adopted. Among the results, we observed that few studies dealt with the relationship between FE and NFE; however, almost half of them occurred in institutions commonly classified as FE (i.e., schools), and the actions were mediated by teachers. Among the main activities, we highlight the observations the sky, guided tours, and play activities, with more than 60% of the activities going through three moments proposed by Allard et al. (1994): Before, during, and after the accomplishment of the activity in a non-formal space. The results found in this research can foster reflections about teacher training courses since more and more NFE spaces are present in teaching-learning processes, but little has been done to associate FE and NFE in teaching practice. We discuss what difficulties are faced by teachers to approach FE and NFE.