Ser professora para além do desencanto

: um percurso, diversos caminhos

Abstract

In recent years, the evolution of educational policies in Portugal has been guided by the rhetoric of autonomy, the emergence of evaluation and the vertigo of change. In the scope of this Reflexive Report we considered it pertinent to question how peer evaluation promotes teachers’ ongoing professional development. Then we defined analysis axes with the purpose of delimit the boundaries of our study. After that, we defined the central objective of this work, which consists of analysing the effects of peer performance evaluation on the construction of teachers’ identity and their professional development. Within the empirical dimension of this study, we emphasised qualitative-interpretative methodology, which was substantiated in a narrative of autobiographic penchant, also designated life story. The theoretical and conceptual framework of reference on which we based our heuristic path allowed us to visit topics from several areas of educational knowledge such as the autonomy of educational organisations, organisational images of school, teachers’ identity and professionality, pedagogical supervision and teacher’s evaluation. Finally, we report that the personal reflection around selected moments of our professional path has allowed us to acknowledge that the system of peer evaluation generated a climate of tension, conflict and discomfort amongst teachers. School, an institution of bureaucratic features, has been transformed in an unspeakable political arena where the affirmation of an autonomous and reflexive teacher and, naturally, the construction of their identity and professionality are more and more difficult.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Matias Alves (Supervisor)