facebook user teacher and his/her teaching professional development in an informal setting

In this research we aim to understand the contributions to the professional development of teachers from the meanings attributed by teachers who use Facebook to share their educational practices in virtual networks. From the interlocution through an online questionnaire with three subjects investigated, we interpret that, although with different professional career times, Facebook, as an informal education space, enhances the professional development of the teacher. Among the contributions, we point out that this social network allows the teachers to promote the understanding of their work through reflection with the other, to encourage formative processes among school peers, to give social visibility to their profession and to elaborate knowledge through virtual communities interactions. Such understanding challenges us, as researchers and/or teacher educators, to broaden our ways of seeing and hearing what this collective that uses Facebook has to share with us about their teaching practices, their teaching processes, and their understandings about the teaching profession.