PIBID as a common home for teacher education

Abstract

This article examines the persistent gap between theory and practice in initial teacher education, a phenomenon also observed in several other professions and across different countries. Based on a bibliographic review, it discusses how the theory–practice gap and its most evident consequence—the reality shock—affect beginning teachers, intensifying feelings of inadequacy, professional dropout, and early-career turnover. Drawing on authors such as Freire, Schön, and António Nóvoa, the article argues that the overemphasis on theoretical content, when dissociated from the concrete demands of school life, weakens the development of teacher professionality and deepens the emotional, subjective, and epistemological tensions faced by prospective and novice teachers. In this context, the article analyzes António Nóvoa’s concept of a “Common House” or “Third Place,” understood as an institutional in-between space that integrates University, School, and the Teaching Profession. It then examines the Institutional Program for Teaching Initiation Grants (PIBID) as a Brazilian public policy aligned with this vision. By promoting supervised immersion in everyday school practice, PIBID strengthens a dialogical and reflective approach to teacher education, reducing the divide between academic knowledge and professional practice. The article concludes that the program constitutes a concrete possibility for mitigating reality shock, supporting the construction of teacher professional identity, and contributing to overcoming the theory–practice dichotomy in teacher education in Brazil.