This article examines the relationship between continuing teacher education and pedagogical innovation in Brazilian public schools from a critical and analytical perspective. The central objective is to analyze how continuing education processes can contribute to effective transformations in pedagogical practices, considering the structural, institutional, curricular, and professional conditions that permeate public schools. Methodologically, the study is structured as a theoretical essay of bibliographic and documentary nature (Meneghetti, 2011), combining a narrative review of classical and contemporary literature with the interpretative analysis of Brazilian regulatory frameworks: the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (Brazil, 1996), the National Education Plan 2014-2024 (Brazil, 2014), its extension by Law 14,934/2024 (Brazil, 2024), the new National Education Plan 2026-2036 instituted by Law 15,388/2026 (Brazil, 2026) and CNE/CP Resolution No. 1/2020, which establishes the Common National Base for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers (Brazil, 2020). The article articulates theoretical contributions from Tardif, Nóvoa, Schön, Freire, Pimenta, Imbernón, Gatti, Perrenoud, and other authors, including recent works on post-pandemic teacher education (Gatti, 2020; Nóvoa, 2019). The argument covers the foundations and conceptual disputes of continuing education, the problematization of pedagogical innovation in the public context, the structural limits that condition innovative practices, the centrality of situated and collaborative training, the role of technologies and methodologies as subsidiary instruments of broader pedagogical intentions, and the relationship between teacher valorization, school management, and consistent public policies. The article argues that effective pedagogical innovation depends not only on qualified training processes, but on concrete working conditions, professional autonomy, democratic management, and institutional commitment to learning and educational equity.
Campelo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.