O Diretor de Turma no papel de líder intermédio

  • Marta Sofia Amaral de Castro Ferreira (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

When we approach the subject of education we have to take into account the school as an organization that arises from the relationship between physical, administrative and social structures and that should always be designed around the pedagogical slope and action. However, despite the proclaimed autonomy of the school, the same is nevertheless very dependent on the state legislative support, and the real actors in the teaching and learning stand aside of participating in planned revisions to the educational system. Today’s schools must be understood as autonomous, inclusive, cooperative and reflective organizations. Schools should be designed for everyone and opportunities for education and appropriate training to different contexts and learning situations should be created. What we want is an effective school that adds value to their students and prepares them for the future and a reflective school which evaluates to continuously improve the process of teaching and learning. As an organization, there is a need to have formal and informal leaders, top leaders and middle leaders. There are different approaches to leadership and management ways, emerging a number of theories and points. However, facing the turning point that the current school system is living, the conceptualization of management and leadership within the educational organizations has to be rethought and new leaders are necessary that realize the new challenges. The existence of formal and informal leaders it’s clear and the articulation between them is essential to a good school organization. Leadership in the school context should be a pedagogical one and it’s necessary that formal and top leaders take into account the knowledge and the teacher’s perspectives, valuing their experiences, strengths and weaknesses, recognizing in them intermediate leadership and informal leadership skills. The middle leaders need to be an extension from the power of the top leaders, to allow a close relationship with the students and the educational community. The Class Director emerges as a middle leader fulfilling a joint role between the school and the community and its action is very important regarding the coordination of all teachers of the class council, promoting personal and social development of students and their integration into the school environment, and the relationship established between the School, the Guardians and the Community. To this middle leader is recognized an appropriate profile, skills and roles. But sometimes the role of the Class Director is only assigned to many teachers due to legislative contingencies. Being the teacher a flexile professional he always fulfils the academic and non-academic positions that are assigned to him, throughout his career, with the utmost professionalism, always hoping for the future and aiming always for the educational success of students.
Date of Award7 Mar 2014
Original languagePortuguese
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorCélia Ribeiro (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • School
  • Leadership
  • Class director

Designation

  • Mestrado em Ciências da Educação

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