Search results

The processes of transformation that contemporary societies are now going through have contributed to the reconfiguration of and stress in the different realities of work and of the professions. In Portugal, during the last few decades it has been proved to be true that the different constitutional governments tended to legislate for reforms concerning the structure of the central administration. In the educational field, these political measures were expressed in countless decrees and standards, which have had repercussions on the lives of schools and teachers. New regimes were proposed like professional reclassification and reconversion (2008) and, more recently, the loss of teaching posts by mutual consent and the requalification of the workers, who were surplus in public services and bodies (2013). An investigation will be carried out in which the principal objective is the understanding of what teachers think about the impact of these policies on their work and on the (re)construction of their professional identity, thus permitting a wider understanding of what it is to be a teacher today. The investigation is of a qualitative nature with recourse to biographical narratives and documental research. This article will focus on a revision of the literature concerning the theme, while emphasizing that the quality of work undertaken by these professionals has a strong relationship with the significance that they attribute to themselves. Thus, in the case of the teachers, the meaning assigned to their work has an impact on their own teaching work and their professional ...

This paper is part of a research study undertaken with Portuguese teachers. The main objective is to understand the impact of recent educational legislation on the quality of teaching and the professional development of teachers. In this context the following research questions were formulated: ' Do the education policies of the government encourage teacher development? ' , ' Will opportunities for teacher development be created in schools? ' , ' Will the goal of improving the quality of teaching be achieved in education contexts sustained by teaching mal- aise ? ' This paper seeks to explain the perceptions of elementary school teachers recounted in written and oral biographical narratives and in three discussion groups set up for the purpose. The professional experiences recounted by the teachers suggest outcomes different from those foreseen by educational policy-makers, thus emphasising the weaknesses and inapplicability of the core objectives established by recent Portuguese ...

This paper is part of ongoing research undertaken for a PhD thesis in Education Sciences, specialty of Curriculum Development. The objective is to understand the impact of recent legislation – Teaching Career Statute (TCS) and its respective Evaluation of Teacher Performance (ETP) – with particular emphasis on the (re)construction of the identity, career and professional development of teachers. In this context we were able to formulate these research questions: do the government"s education policies encourage teacher development? Will opportunities for teacher development be created in schools? Will the goal of improving the quality of teaching be achieved in education contexts sustained by teaching malaise? In this paper we shall explain the perceptions of elementary school teachers recounted in written and oral biographical narratives and in three discussion groups set up for the purpose. In addition we present some of the results yielded by responses to a questionnaire sent out to 396 elementary school teachers and their statistical analysis using the chi-square test and t-test. The professional experiences recounted by the teachers suggest outcomes different from those foreseen by Portugal"s policymakers, emphasising the weaknesses and inapplicability of the core objectives established in the legislation on the Portuguese ...

AbstractMediators have gained visibility in the national and international context because of the relevance of their intervention in light of current social challenges. However, the professional profile of mediators is not consolidated, and its recognition has been slow and ambiguous. The diversity of the initial basic training of mediators and the diversity of training available in mediation are two contributing factors to this lack of recognition. The objectives of this article are to characterize the professional profile of Portuguese mediators, to understand their stance regarding the introduction of a bachelor's in mediation in Portuguese higher education, and contribute to the debate about the consolidation and formal recognition of these professionals. Inspired by theoretical and empirical reflections and studies that discuss the possibility of creating a bachelor's in mediation as a strategy to standardize and consolidate mediation and the professional profile of mediators, we present, in this article, a quantitative and qualitative descriptive analysis of the socio‐occupational situation of 175 mediators in Portugal. Most respondents agree that a bachelor's in mediation may contribute to the recognition of the area and the quality of the mediators' work. However, the advantages of multidisciplinary initial basic training and the lack of employability in the area of mediation are two factors that may call into question the relevance of creating this degree. Given the results, it is important to reflect on the nature and modalities of training in mediation, namely at the bachelor level, in order to contribute to the professional recognition of mediators.

In processes oriented towards social change and transformation, the specification of different concepts and levels of participation is an important intellectual and epistemic challenge. Critical questioning of participation in social intervention and research is fundamental for structuring a common understanding and a grammar for intervention, which supports, in theory, the construction of a type of architecture of participation, that is, a conceptual network that sets the parameters for the evaluation of participation. The concept of participation, used so frequently in a populist way, can adapt as easily to objectives of regulation, as to social transformation, and can be subordinate to such divergent paradigms of social intervention such as task-centered interventions, the building of opportunities for development and the processes which aim to improve personal and social decision-making. One of the major goals of participation is to increase the power of individuals and collective decision-making. Beyond this individual and micro-level dimension, it reveals processes of co-construction of social alternatives and structures of opportunity on the meso level (the community) and the macro level (the political instance). Thus, participation in the present day constitutes a strategic axis for social intervention and research. It is necessary to reflect about it. How to operationalize participation? How important is the way it tackles and develops participation in research and transformative social intervention? ...

Les auteurs travaillent sur l'évaluation de l'intégration [*] des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (TIC) dans le quotidien de l'école. Ils argumentent le fait que les procédures d'évaluation doivent être le résultat d'une réflexion sur sa logique elle-même ; qu'il est pertinent d'évaluer non seulement le produit mais aussi le processus ; que l'évaluation doit surtout contribuer à une meilleure gestion de(s) l'action(s) qui se développe(nt). L'évaluation apparaît alors comme un processus de recueil des informations utiles à la prise de décisions qui jalonnent le fonctionnement du curriculum. On présente ensuite un modèle d'évaluation qui intègre les acteurs, les moments, les objets et les instruments. À partir d'une synthèse des données obtenues, une réflexion élargie est menée sur les effets des innovations technologiques et sur les possibilités qu'offre une telle évaluation pour une meilleure gestion de leur développement. [*] La recherche conduite intègre les écoles du "Projecto Nónio Século XXI" engagées par le « Centro de Competência da Université du Minho » (CCUM). Ce Projet, financé par le Ministère de l'Éducation Portugais est en cours depuis trois ans, et son terme est prévu pour la fin de l'année ...

The work and collaborative learning of teachers are recognized, as fundamental factors in the professional development of teachers and in the quality of educational organizations. This text presents some results of a case study carried out in a Group of Schools in the north of Portugal staffed by 134 teachers of various educational levels by means of a qualitative and quantitative methodology. The objectives of the investigation focused on understanding the way that the teachers described their learning opportunities, recognized the facilitating and inhibiting elements of collaborative professional learning in the workplace and analyzed the way how the teachers perceived their professional learning in the work place. Information was collected by recourse to an enquiry using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Fundamentally we focused on results of a qualitative nature with particular attention to information resulting from the interviews and also from the questionnaires. The results showed the recognition on the part of the teachers of the ways and contexts of collaborative work and learning and their importance in their professional daily life and quality of work. They also reflected that, although the teachers recognized these contexts in their current professional experience, they did not associate these experiences directly to communities of practice. ; COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007560 and FCT [Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia] (The Portuguese Government Fund for Science and Technology) within the Project Scope: ...

This article presents the characteristics and methodology related to the implementation of a European project centered on the training of social mediators through European mobility and collaborative action-research. The ArleKin - Training in Mediation for Social Inclusion through European Mobility Project was financed by the European Union (ref: 539947-LLP-1-2013-1-FR- GRUNDTVIG-GMP) and focused on the following objectives: i) to give visibility to social mediation, as a means of innovative and pertinent social intervention for responding to new challenges of social cohesion in contemporary societies; ii) to develop the professionalization of social mediators in a concerted way at the European level; and iii) to experiment in-service training course in mediation through European mobility that was inspired by the tradition of the Companions of the Tour of France. The realization of the objectives of the project were attained through collaborative work among the various European partners and in the setting up of a community of practice and research composed of academics, researchers, professionals and politicians with the view of consolidating the professionalization and visibility of social mediators at a European level. ...

This paper presents the experience related to developing a training course on Mediation for Social Inclusion through European Mobility within a project funded by the European Union between 2013 and 2016. The course is based on the training scheme of the Tour of France Companions in which trainees learn their role by observing and working with their masters in different cities. Social mediation, as the jobs were at that time, is learnt through immersion in various contexts. This course is still being developed in France and in other countries and it has been updated by the authors of the paper, through the use of Web 2.0. The course uses action-researchtraining methodology in which experiential, reflective and collaborative dimensions are present. In total, five countries and 13 Associations for Mediation participated along with the team responsible for in the project. ; 539947-LLP-1-2013-1-FR- ...