As fronteiras da sala de aula

: elementos para uma pedagogia da metarmofose

Abstract

At school, the classroom continues to be the privileged area for learning based on teaching (Roldão, 2010). However, the idea of a work carried out in the isolation of the classroom has been perceived for long as insufficient to respond to contemporary challenges. In the “Perfil dos Alunos à Saída da Escolaridade Obrigatória” (2017) there are repeated allusions to systematic activities that may occur "in the classroom or out of the classroom". Nevertheless, the opening of the classroom, whether allowing the entry of other actors and knowledge, or promoting activities outside the classroom, does not seem to be a regular practice, though. For these reasons, we wish to broaden the knowledge about the current boundaries of the classroom, assessing the meaning of their intersections, taking into account the teaching and learning activities that cross them, the organization of spaces and time, actors and their interactions, the type of knowledge focus and the teaching and learning strategies. The key factors that impel or inhibit these activities are also sought for, towards a more holistic understanding of the main border lines that exist in the school, the meanings that can be associated with them, and the effects they have on the actors and the educational processes. Thus, based on an ecological model of a case study, adopting a micro (classroom) and meso (school) perspective and an essentially qualitative methodology, we intend to better understand how the third cycle’s classrooms of a private school breathe. The interpretive approach is necessarily multifocal, requiring the construction of multiple data collection techniques in order to triangulate them. For this purpose, the analysis of data collected through observations of various activities inside and outside the classroom, focus groups, questionnaires and document analysis were combined. These data were contrasted and interpreted in the light of a theoretical framework built for this purpose. The main conclusions are that, in general, activities that cross the border of the traditional classroom seem to have a positive impact on all school functions, with emphasis on activities of an interdisciplinary nature and those that tend to involve the school community in the students' learning. They also seem to be excellent opportunities to improve the school climate and the pedagogical relationship, as well as to bring great satisfaction to its actors. The constraints related to physical spaces, material resources, lack of time and naturalization of practices seem to be the main inhibitors of the cross-border of the v classroom, while the pedagogical relationship, collaborative teaching, professional satisfaction, as well as the “Programa de Autonomia e Flexibilização Curricular”, are related to the aspects that can boost them. We conclude that the crossings of the classroom boundaries should be considered as interesting options of pedagogical investment and defending its regular use. Finally, we draw some boundaries that emerged in the research such as the boundary between the naturalization of practices and resistance to change; between the vertigo of the acceleration of the routines and the urgency of reflecting on it; between the inevitability of regulation and the ambition of authorship; between the rigidity of spaces and the need for resources; between virtual individualism and the desire for professional recognition and collaboration.

Date of Award	29 Nov 2019
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	José Matias Alves (Supervisor)