LITERACY: CONCEPTUAL CHANGES IN EARLY YEARS TEACHERS FOLLOWING CONTINUING EDUCATION

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze conceptual changes in literacy teachers regarding the concept of literacy after their participation in continuing education grounded in evidence from the science of reading and cognitive psychology. This qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study was conducted through semi-structured interviews applied before and after the training. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis, allowing for the identification of categories and comparison between the two investigative moments. The results indicate that, in the pre-test, literacy was predominantly conceived as decoding and as the instrumental teaching of reading and writing. In the post-test, a significant conceptual expansion was observed, with the emergence of a more process-oriented, continuous, and multidimensional understanding of literacy, incorporating aspects such as reading comprehension, reading the world, and cognitive development. It is concluded that evidence-based continuing education plays a fundamental role in teachers’ conceptual reorganization, directly impacting their professional practice and fostering pedagogical approaches more closely aligned with the cognitive processes involved in learning to read and write.