RCAAP Repository

This work aims to understand mainstream school teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) and the variables that influence them, as well as identify the needs indicated by the teachers to work with these students in inclusive environments. A study was conducted with a sample of 323 teachers from rural and urban areas from coast and inland Portugal, who taught primary and secondary education. The results show that, overall, teachers have positive attitudes, but revealing contradictions, particularly regarding the inclusion of all students with SEN. The demographic variables: level of education, gender and academic qualifications; and experience of teaching pupils with SEN do not influence the attitudes of teachers, whereas the service time has some influence and specific training yields better attitudes of teachers towards the inclusion of students with SEN. This attitudes are positively associated with the factors feelings of self-efficacy, perception of knowledge, support/ resources and collaboration with the special education teacher. To improve inclusion, teachers identify as needs: smaller classes, more time, human resources, materials and training.

This work presents a study about violence in the schools through the relationships between power and potency. It is, in fact, a pedagogical perspective that might be of interest to teacher training programs as well to supervisors and managers. The teaching profession undergoes changes of identity, status, identifications, caused by power/social forces that are present in both the socio-cultural diversity of the students, as the social demands that charge its professional formation suitable for the third millennium. First, are made considerations about a dynamic of violence e its manifestation in the school context then discusses ways more human to face the violence in the schools, in light of understanding of ambivalence. The theoretical-methodological adopted is Michel Maffesoli’s everyday’s sociology, Edgar Morin’s epistemology of complexity and Gilbert Durand’s anthropology of the imaginary. In general, it was evaluated that treat/domesticate the violence through norms and rules doesn’t seem to have the effect desired and was suggested that the process of revitalization would be one of the ways to channeling the aggressiveness, to strengthen the group, including meetings between professionals of the school, many ceremonies, games, contests, sports tournaments, festivals.

The Project 11:15 is a pedagogical experiment applied by the Philosophy teachers of the Secondary School Rocha Peixoto – Póvoa de Varzim. It consists in the planning, design and construction of didactic instruments for Philosophy for Children of the first levels of the Secondary School, with an incursion in the field of Pre-Elementary Education (ISCED 0).

Higher education institutions have invested in virtual learning environments (Institutional Managed Learning Environments-iMLE), aiming to achieve organizational and pedagogical changes, promoting innovation and competitiveness. The management of these environments, which have associated a complex architecture, is an emerging theme in the literature, particularly in the area of computer management tools. In this paper, based in the case of the Portuguese Catholic University – Porto Regional Centre,  an approximation to the theme is performed: firstly, the architecture of iMLE is described, showing the relationship between the several subsystems that compose it and the centrality of Learning Content Management System (LCMS) is demonstrated; secondly, a practical contribution in managing the iMLE is presented, in particular, the process of conception of a computer tool that allows to manage the integration of the LCMS in the teaching and learning process is described and substantiated. The problematization of the complex architectures of iMLE through a panoramic approach, aggregating several concepts and perspectives, and the proposal of a computer tool for the management of these environments are the main contributions of this work.

À semelhança de experiências e decisões internacionais, também em Portugal o processo de ensinar e aprender ocorre agora em ambientes tecnologicamente enri-quecidos.Com o objetivo de recolher evidências sobre como se utiliza a tecnologia, os recursos educativos digitais e os repositórios, apresentam-se os resultados de um estudo exploratório obtidos com 455 respondentes a um inquérito por questionário autoadministrado online a professores do Continente e Ilhas dos Ensinos Pré-escolar, Básico e Secundário. A investigação revela que os professores recorrem à utilização da tecnologia e de recursos educativos digitais, selecionam e descarregam recursos com qualidade assegurada de repositórios, encontrando-se, portanto, a tirar partido do equipamento informático disponível nas escolas portuguesas.

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The paradigm of learning organizations has been the subject of growing attention, but few studies investigate its practical application to the processes and structures of schools. Thus, instruments are needed that can measure the levels of organizational learning in schools, enabling the planning of interventions for improvement. This article examines in an exploratory way the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of an instrument to assess schools as learning organizations. It also describes the results of its application to teachers and senior staff (n=1266) of public schools in Viseu county. The analyses indicate that the psychometric properties of the adapted instrument are identical to the original instrument, which is promising. Although the type of sample used prevents the generalization of results, this work is one of the first applications of an instrument for measuring the level of organizational learning of primary and secondary Portuguese schools. Principals and teachers of these schools can use the results to create a school climate more conducive to improving their teaching and learning processes.

Taking as reference four professional cultures, we tried to understand how teachers work in a department of a public school. We adopted a research methodology centered in a case study, in a naturalistic approach of qualitative nature. Providing a common space for joint reflection in a focus group, we tried to find out what teachers think about their school’s culture and its impact on their work environment. In order to obtain a multi-focused view of the field studied, we interviewed the head of department, group leaders and the school’s direction board. Data triangulation allowed us to confirm information, detect inconsistencies and enhance confidence in the data collected. We realized that the pressure of performativity is not producing visible improvement in the quality of teaching processes and learning outcomes. As individualism and balkanization increase, collaboration and forced collegiality are (re)construed by teachers in schools, in an attempt to fit in the new educational backdrops. This puts forward the need for teachers to engage in spontaneous collaborative environments in order to boost teacher empowerment and reinforce their professional identity.

The purpose of this article is to convey the main results of the multi case study entitled “Evaluation of schools: from the ritual of legitimacy and impression management”, developed under the PhD in Educational Sciences from the Catholic University. The research aimed to identify the impacts of the external evaluation and self-evaluation of schools in order to improve them. Were chosen three very different schools despite their geographical proximity, particularly with regard to the existence of self-assessment teams and the experience of self-assessment and self-regulation. Research results indicate that the impacts produced by the external evaluation and self-evaluation by fall in formal organizational functioning, giving expression to goals that do not refer, first, to the improvement of schools, but the need to legitimize the status quo. Whether external evaluation or self-assessment occurred in these schools were interpreted and experienced by institutional actors interviewed as opportunities for image management school in the face of internal and external pressures that schools are continually target.

The study of the school leadership phenomenon has been widely developed in several countries and also in Portugal. Following this growing trend, we developed a research project aiming at the analysis of the national scientific production on school leadership. In this project we analyzed 175 documents focusing on Portugal and the Portuguese reality (25 papers in scientific journals, 80 papers in conference proceedings, 57 master dissertations and 13 PhD theses), published between 2000 and 2010. In order to analyze this corpus we used content analysis, adopting Bush’s (2011) typology as a theoretical-conceptual framework. We used the six models of management/leadership of the typology (formal, collegial, political, cultural, ambiguity and subjective) and discriminated dimensions of analysis for each model. The results allow for the drawing of the models of school leadership that are present and predominant in the national scientific production on this subject. We conclude that there are several forms of leadership, non-withstanding the identification of the formal, collegial (especially transformational leadership) and political models as the more representative ones.

The model of governance of Portuguese state schools set up in 2008 breaks with a tradition of electing the top school manager through universal suffrage of teachers establishing a one head body – the director – chosen by the general council, formed by elements from various sectors of the community, under the pretext of every school having a “face” to whom responsibilities may be shifted and allow the claim of “good and effective leaderships.” This study aims to assess whether the mechanisms introduced in the choice of the director by Decree-Law n.º 75/2008 led to significant changes in the process of choosing the top manager of state schools, to infer the portrait-type of a school manager and investigate whether the logic underlying his/her selection have confirmed or infirmed the one normatively suggested.

As part of a doctoral research study, and with reference to the (con) text of the implementation of the current governance model of Portuguese schools, which introduced the figure of the Director, this article discusses an individual leadership, rooted in the assumptions of indicators of unipersonal managerialists and simultaneously discusses the importance of values, affections and enthusiasm of the actors and authors, in the (re) construction of singular leaderships. The starting point were the results from interviews to directors and questionnaires to teachers from four clusters of schools of a county in the central region, where we presented narratives of leaders and led, some revealing the discursive hybridity around the topic of school leadership, others refer to the importance of leadership, framed in the experience of a school which is hostage to bureaucracy, where the boldness, the courage seem to sustain hope, utopia, the desire to be a more human and humanized school.

The universalization of the secondary education in Portugal is follow by a process of integration of the school into de community and reformulation territorial coordination of the educational activities. The politics of the universal school becomes more complex, taken inside the problem of economic, cultural and social inequality, and the evidence of the inadequacy of a equal, homogeneous and impersonal teaching. The territorial politics of teaching in Portugal includes de TEIP Program – territories educational of Priority Intervention, that aims prevent the dropout of school and ensure the equal success of the student, benefits of specific supports in the areas of education and human resources, promotes flexible mobility of the pedagogical organization and management of the curriculum, and stimulates the joint with families and with the local community. Our investigation is of qualitative nature, so privileges the investigation-action in the extent of advising 50 “priority” schools and aims problematize the action of the external consultant in the organization of the school, especially in the teaching field, that is the domain of the teachers and where is played the formal legitimacy of distinct leaders when we problematize the educational orientation, groups of students reorganization, the implementation of tutorials, the articulation of pedagogical work and the relation between community and families. The observation and participant observation and the several scripts produce by teachers and consultants allow to put in evidence a tension between, by one side, the strong influence of the centralization and the sequential teaching passivity, and by another side, the political impetus to the professional autonomy and the sequential teachers capacity, opening a opportunity for sustainable development and for professional teaching development.

The generalization of post-primary education, the demographic changes and the decrease of the number of children and teenagers at school age are the major reasons for the evolution (expansion or contraction) of the school network and thus being necessary to rethink the models of organization and management of schools. This article describes the (dis)continuous process of reorganization of the network of establishments in Braga, a county in the north of Portugal. We highlight the arguments deployed by the Educational Administration and by local actors in this social and political process and discuss its evolution in a context of tension between state and market.

Este artigo descreve o curso de Mestrado em Ciências da Educação, especialização em Informática Educacional, que a UCP lançou em 2003 através do Instituto de Educação, e que em cerca de dez anos envolveu mais de quatrocentos alunos. No artigo descrevem-se as etapas de um projeto de ensino a distância, desde o seu desenho até à avaliação final. Em cada uma das fases, para além da descrição do que foi, e é ainda, o curso, referem-se com algum detalhe os fundamentos teóricos que justificaram as opções práticas assumidas. Na parte final relata-se o processo de avaliação do próprio curso, mostrando alguns resultados de um inquérito lançado a quase duas centenas de diplomados, materializando a avaliação de nível 3 de acordo com a categorização de Kirkpatrick. Pretendeu-se com este instrumento identificar o impacto da nossa oferta formativa, quer em cada um dos nossos alunos, quer nas organizações onde desenvolviam atividade profissional.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) use several technological subsystems for the management of multiple aspects of the organization, which collect a huge amount of data from these subsystems, but which do not communicate with each other. The idea of the Analytics in Education is based on the possibility of using this data in an aggregated way in the process of decision making and the development of new models in management. Using the reality of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto as a starting point, we present the architecture and the results achieved in the development of a prototype of Academic Analytics, for the management of teaching activity at the institution, which aggregates data from three technological subsystems. Three main contributions resulted from this study: i) Theoretical – Analytics in Education is a new theme with rapid rising interest, and therefore it is difficult to maintain a stable discourse when defining concepts and describing processes. In this context, we present a reflection on the main issues discussed and list the most relevant concepts; ii) Methodology – The rationale and application of the Model Design Science Research Process (DSRP), which, despite its versatility in the field of presentation of artifacts, still has little importance in the field of Information Systems (IS) applied to Social and Human Sciences; iii) Practical – Presentation of a prototype of an Academic Analytics system.

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The purpose of this article is to highlight how self-assessment processes must enroll in a process of collective capacity building at schools, as a critical factor for managing the improvement at school as Professional Learning Communities which focus on improvements in teacher quality and teaching, we are able to promote self-assessment as device of development. Without purposeful, focused, and sustained capacity building, the self-evaluation will be shallow at worst and at best uneven learning where any gains are likely to be short-lived. The self-evaluation within the context of Professional Learning Communities creates an infrastructure for creating a better professional practice and enhancing school wide capacity for sustainable improvement.

The institutional pressure to the adoption of models, arrangements or simple self-assessment practices has been constant since the beginning of the 21st century, either in a logic of accountability, or in the logic of understanding and improving educational processes and results. In this context, an expressive number of schools and school groupings has been soliciting the “Serviço de Apoio à Melhoria das Escolas - SAME” (School Improvement Support Service) to make references, methodologies and instruments available, that enable them to adopt a systematic practice of self-knowledge production on the various school realities and that induces an improvement actions planning and concretization. The referential that has been serving as a guide to SAME’s consultants considers the domains and indicators that structure the external evaluation of “Inspeção Geral da Educação e Ciência – IGEC” (General Inspection for Education and Science), but goes far beyond what is predicted there, in an attempt to build a more integrated vision, more focused on the processes that have the power to improve academic, social and personal results. This focalization must not ignore the centrality of the classroom, since it is there that an expressive part of the learning prescribed in the curriculum and programs is (or not) accomplished. In order to apprehend and understand a complex reality, a multiplicity of methods and instruments, information sources and subjects is used, in a systematic triangulation practice. Another structuring topic is that this support process assumes a multimodal nature and is based on the specific reality of each school, only making sense if able to contribute to the involvement and development of actors and institutions. It can be hence assumed as a process of self-knowledge production, implication, mobilization and compromise towards a better quality education for everyone.

The growing importance that accountability has in Portuguese public schools is the result of media coverage of the schools ranking phenomena and also to the external evaluation that schools have been subject since 2006. However, studies have shown that this accountability has been associated to an improvement goal that may not be promoted if schools do not evaluate what they do internally (Bolivar, 2003). This text aims to identify influences of schools’ external evaluation in developing a self-assessment culture within schools.Data were collected from the external evaluation reports of schools, performed by IGEC (Inspeção-Geral da Educação e Ciência) during the 1st and 2nd cycles of external evaluation, from a set of 52 schools belonging to North and Centre regions of the country. The reports were chosen as to belonging two different groups of schools: Schools with high marks obtained in the external evaluation process and schools with lower marks.The 104 reports were treated through content analysis, using the NVivo10 program. The analysis helped to confirm that the Schools’ external evaluation had influence the development of schools’ self-assessment, and this influence is higher in schools with lower marks. Schools with higher marks were also those to which Schools’ external evaluation process recognizes more consistent practices of self-assessment, inducing a culture of self-assessment.