Aprendizagem organizacional em contexto de funcionamento de equipas educativas enquanto comunidades de aprendizagem

: a progressiva emergência de uma metamorfose profissional e escolar

Abstract

Responding to today’s global challenges requires quality education, which implies a transformation of the school's organizational structure, the adoption of new roles and mentalities for its actors, and a culture of learning at the different levels of the organization. In this way, educational teams, functioning as learning communities, can present themselves as a valuable organizational change for school improvement, configuring themselves as a relevant object of study in education. Although there has been a great deal of research on the topic of learning communities in the last two decades, there is a dearth of research that examines these communities as drivers for building learning organizations, and therefore it is an area that needs further study. This paper is part of this line of research, seeking to contribute to theory, research and practice on how changing some organizational structures, namely the organization of teaching by educational teams, can have implications for individual, collective and organizational learning in a school. To this end, we adopted a qualitative research paradigm, which we operationalized through an instrumental case study, combining a quali-quant approach. We combined a descriptive statistical approach of two questionnaires, which were decoded and interpreted structurally and semantically, with a content analysis of interviews, focus groups, and field diary notes, in order to delve into some unique contexts and the perspectives of individual actors. We present five related studies that focus on analyzing the dynamics of how educational teams work and their effects. Study 1 consists of a scoping review of the literature on the organizational, cultural and pedagogical changes brought about by professional learning communities in schools. This study supports Studies 2, 3 and 4. Study 2 presents the functioning of educational teams as learning communities and their effects on their members, classroom practices and school cultures. Study 3 focuses on these same effects, this time through the actions of the educational team coordinators as middle leaders. Study 4 focuses on the analysis of collaborative interactions between teachers in educational teams and their contribution to their deep learning. With Study 5, an umbrella study, we tried to focus on the methodology used in our research, to show the importance of the field diary in revealing some tensions and deepening the results presented. These studies have allowed us to conclude that changing organizational structures is an essential condition for improving education, but it is not enough. What is needed is a change in the beliefs of the actors and a collaboration that enables deep learning. Substantial change in education, within the educational organization, therefore requires combined action at the level of structure, middle leadership, beliefs and professional cultures.

Date of Award	29 Nov 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Matias Alves (Supervisor)