Trabalho colaborativo entre professores

Abstract

The student’s acquisition of knowledge is directly related to the teaching
quality that professors develop to promote that learning.
Based mainly on my informal experience in school life and in dialogue with
many professional colleagues, I observe that the professional isolation of teachers is a
constant. Upgrading and improving your own training as individuals and education
professionals is important for this quality.
Being the collaboration between teachers an increasingly current theme in
teachers' pedagogical practices and taking into account that the external evaluation of
schools, through the general inspection of education and science, calls for
collaborative work among teachers in the provision of educational service , affirming
the monitoring and supervision of teaching practice and playing a relevant role in
monitoring the effectiveness of educational support practices, I decided to choose the
theme of my research as a collaborative work among teachers, namely to identify and
establish relationships between how teachers and Leaders see the collaborative work
of teachers and how they guide their teaching practices.
My research problem led me to construct a theoretical framework of analysis
that sought to clarify not only the concepts directly related to it, namely professional
culture and typology of teaching cultures (individualism, collaboration, artificial
collegiality, balkanization, Large family), but also contiguous concepts that contributed
to the deepening of the former, such as professional teaching knowledge and
professionalism.
The empirical study was conducted in 2016 and I developed my research,
focusing on a group of teachers and leaders, top and middle, in a grouping of a public
school in the city of Braga, focusing only on the school of 3rd Cycle and secondary.
The research developed focuses on the modality of qualitative research, of an
interpretive nature, although using mixed techniques. The methodology adopted for
data collection was based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative
techniques, although with a higher incidence in the qualitative perspective, using
questionnaire surveys techniques, semi-structured interviews complemented with documentary analysis of school guidance documents. Fifty-seven teachers who
answered a questionnaire and ten respondents, including the top leader (school
principal), three intermediate leaders and six teachers participated in the study.
In the treatment of data analysis, the technique of statistical analysis was
applied in questionnaire surveys and content analysis for interviews and document
collection.
The results obtained point to the fact that teachers are theoretically aware of
how to work collaboratively, although it is not a common practice, that is, the absence
of effective collaborative work stands out. Existing collaborative practices prove to be
very small or practically nonexistent. The most emerging idea is that collaboration
implies working together and sharing, in fact summarizing the establishment of
spontaneous, voluntary relations, diffused in time and space, and with a formal
character.
Professors demonstrate positive perceptions regarding the collaborative
culture as they show interest and predisposition to participate in processes of
collaboration with other colleagues, recognizing their importance. However, the
classroom remains their "space of freedom," where each teacher still works in
isolation and individually.
The bet on initial and continuous training may be a way to change the
individualistic mentality and isolation that characterizes the professional culture of
teachers.

Date of Award	28 Jul 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria do Céu Roldão (Supervisor)