Thesis and Dissertations Analysis on Chemistry Teaching in Brazil: Focus on the Scientific Production of Postgraduate Programs

The production and dissemination of scientific knowledge on chemistry education has received a great deal of attention from researchers both national and internationally. In this study, 152 master dissertations and two doctoral theses on this topic defended in Graduate Programs in Science and Mathematics Education in Brazil (CAPES - area 46), between 2000 and 2008, were analyzed. The documents were investigated thoroughly based on the following descriptors: year of defense; academic degree; geographic region, institution, and graduate program; level of education and thematic focus. The results strongly indicate the consolidation of the Chemistry Education Research area in the country showing an increased production within the period analyzed. The production of USP (32.30%) predominated followed by PUC/RS (9.70%), UnB (8.40%), and UFRPE (8.40%), but there were also master dissertations from all regions in the country. On the other hand, in the majority of the regions, especially North and Northeast, there are few active researchers in this area, which suggests the need for the creation of new research teams. The levels of education focused were high school (74.68%) and higher education (22.08%), whereas the topics Content-Method (27.27%) Teachers Features (14.93%), and Teacher Education (14.29%) were the most investigated. Surprisingly, the topics Popularization of Science and Special Education, related to issues currently discussed in important educational debates, were scarcely addressed