Adopção de práticas supervisivas e desenvolvimento profissional : um contributo para o bem-estar docente

Abstract

Being a teacher, nowadays, is to have a profession in constant change, in a school considered as a learning organization that has to adapt to the changing world. This interaction results in a mutual influence. In this context, teachers were confronted with constant changes, imposed by educational policies related to evaluation models. This has originated some insecurity but it also challenged us to achieve new participation forms, to rethink concepts related with the pedagogic practice and lead to new potential ways to (re)construct the teacher role as well as the school organizational culture, leading to the professional development. This study justifies itself in this constant changing scenario, emerging from the conjugation of several factors as, for instance, concerns regarding the definition of supervision in an evaluation context, integrated in the teachers continuous training. Therefore, the investigation subject leads us to the general study problem: the clear difficulty that teachers have to adopt supervisory practices that help them in the professional development and the success of the school. The investigative path was drawn based on investigation questions and general and specific objectives consolidated in the theoretical framework. Therefore, the empirical study was based on the methodological options, having into consideration information collected about the work developed by the teachers of the Subdepartamento de Português da Escola MS (MS School Portuguese Language Sub-department), its evaluation, supervision, professional development and teaching practices conceptions and representations. We have adopted a mixed methodology, using quantitative (inquiry by questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interview) approaches in order to obtain information from several sources. The results analysis brought us to the following conclusions: difficulty to weigh supervision and evaluation simultaneously, as a result of the evaluation model in force; however, the supervision contribute to improve the teacher performance and professional development is recognized; the individual professional culture and the traditional organizational culture (schedules uncoordination; excessive bureaucratisation of the teacher work) incapacitates the mutual help and the collaborative work of a practice that can be build based on new practices. It is urgent to rethink the supervisory practices potential in the renovation of the teacher, as an individual, as well as the school, leading to the success and well-being.

Date of Award	31 Oct 2011
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Matias Alves (Supervisor)