Ser professor

: do jardim sonhado ao jardim construído

Abstract

The storytelling of teachers’ lives has become a way of reflecting on teaching practices in order to better understand and act on this venture as holy as the mission of being a teacher, which more than imparting knowledge, aims to educate. Starting from memory, a mirror in which I sought myself in order to recognize myself, I enunciate three moments of a story. And because it's my life story, personal and professional, it must be real. Walking through the garden of the memories, I selected three of the most professionally significant situations: the admission to Colégio da Rainha Santa Isabel, where I was received in the heart; the experience as a Head of Class which taught me how to see with the heart, and the appointment as Pedagogical Assistant Director, a mission that I embraced and where I learned to be and to do with the heart. The stories that embody this theoretically sustained report were the ones that allowed a new requirement of myself, because they serve to, by looking at me, by reflecting and understanding the practices, act on them, propelling change. In these I rediscovered myself, through distorting mirrors that showed me that I was unaware of the reality, through disasters and deviations that indicated me the way forward. In those bright flowerbeds, I found the underlying theoretical lenses to my practice: the problem of teacher professional identity, the importance of school culture, the fertile land where everything happens, the pedagogical relationship and the importance of leadership in school organizations. In the end, within the balance between what I’ve learned and what I still hope to come to learn, the reflection is interlaced on how to be a good teacher, such a noble mission that is my sun, my light, my nourishment. All is thus immortalized in these pages, as not even a single moment can I lose.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Ilídia de Meireles Cabral da Rocha Vieira (Supervisor)