Session Information
15 SES 07, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Collaborative research in Education, namely involving school teachers and academics, seems to be presently acknowledged as a powerful transformation tool that stimulates the development of those involved (inter alia, Angelides, 2002; Wood, 2007) and their professional institutions, of the students at schools, and of Education itself as a field of science and of praxis (Canha, 2013).
What are the origins of this interest? How far has it pushed initiative and encouraged concrete projects in collaborative scenarios? What change (if any) has it brought so far?
These are the questions that generated the impulse to conduct the analysis presented in this paper, our main goal being a deeper understanding of the contribution of collaborative research for the development of educational knowledge and practice in Portugal, within our own particular area of activity – Language Didactics (LD).
The conceptual framework sustaining our study is built around a central notion of collaboration which, elaborating on Tripp’s categorization of participatory research (1989), is proposed by Canha (2013; also cf. Canha & Alarcão, 2010) as a tridimensional concept. In this stance, collaboration should be assumed not merely as a rhetorical principle guiding well-intended yet inconsequent ideology, but as an effective instrument of shared transformation leading to the development of knowledge and practice. Moreover, collaboration refers to a process of shared research, based on equity in decision making, in which school teachers and academics pursue common goals. But collaborative dynamics demand also a particular way of being and acting, an attitude of openness towards self-transformation and of confidence on new perspectives and thoughts advanced by the partners involved. In the case of collaborative research between academics and school teachers in Portugal, it implies the need to reevaluate a history of relations that, until recently, has kept them apart as two separate communities.
Revisiting the recent past of research in LD in our country, we account for a traditional vision of the roles of academics and school teachers in Education, which, until almost the end of the 1990s, tended to legitimate the former as the scientific community and the latter as the practitioners, primarily concerned with the teaching of their students. This view stands on the perception of obstacles that allegedly inhibit realistic possibilities of teachers getting implicated in systematic research (Costa, 2000, 2003; Patrício, 1989) – their professional demands are time consuming and allow no time for substantial involvement in research; teachers’ interests are focused on the work with their students, and that motivation defines their professional culture.
Bearing in mind those alerts, which we believe worthy of close consideration, we underline, instead, signs that presently seem to sketch a scenario of multiple attempts of approximation to collaborative dynamics of research - perceived movements of teachers towards the practice of research (basically within the context of post-graduate studies), collaborative projects involving teachers and academics (Andrade et al., 2008; Canha, 2013; Vieira, 2002), a scientific event organised with the specific purpose of bringing these professionals of Education together on a debate about the relations between research and practice in their area of activity (Cardoso, Martins & Paiva, 2008).
In our tour through the history of collaborative research in LD in Portugal, illustrated by the research trajectory of the first author of this text (as clarified in the following section), we anticipate a future that claims continuous effort, demanding planning and strategic investment on a sustained culture of collaboration between academics and teachers. And we account for a clear sign of that effort, emerging from an innovative project that teachers and academics in the region of Aveiro are currently putting together.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
ANGELIDES, Panayiotis (2002). A collaborative approach for teachers’ in-service training. Journal of Education for Teaching, vol. 28 nº1: 81-82. ANDRADE, Ana Isabel (coord); ÁLVARES PEREIRA, Luísa; ARAÚJO E SÁ, Helena; BASTOS, Mónica; CANHA, Manuel Bernardo Q.; CARDOSO, Inês; ESPINHA, Ângela; GOMES, Sílvia; GONÇALVES, Lurdes; MARTINS, Esperança; MARTINS, Filomena; PINHO, Ana Sofia; SÁ, Cristina; SÁ, Susana & SANTOS, Leonor (2008). Línguas & Educação: Orientações para um Projecto Colaborativo. Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro. CANHA, Manuel Bernardo Q. (2001). Investigação em Didáctica e Prática Docente. Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro. Dissertação de Mestrado (não publicada). CANHA, Manuel Bernardo Q. (2013). Colaboração em Didática – Utopia, Desencanto e Possibilidade. Tese de Doutoramento (não publicada). CANHA, Manuel Bernardo Q. & ALARCÃO, Isabel (2010). Colaboração e comunidade: conceitos sustentadores de projectos para o desenvolvimento profissional. In Actas do XV Endipe – Encontro Nacional de Didáctica e Prática de Ensino, Convergências e Tensões no Campo da Formação e do Trabalho Docente: Políticas e Práticas Educacionais. Belo Horizonte, Brasil, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais: 3-17 (CD-ROM). CARDOSO, Inês; MARTINS, Esperança & PAIVA, Zilda (orgs.) (2008). Actas do colóquio Da Investigação à Prática: Interacções e Debates. Aveiro, Departamento de Didática e Tecnologia Educativa, Centro de Investigação Didática e Tecnologia na Formação de Formadores, Universidade de Aveiro (CD-ROM). COSTA, Nilza (2000). O saber da investigação em Didáctica e o conhecimento profissional de professores de ciências. In Araújo e Sá, Maria Helena (org.), Investigação em didática e Formação de Professores. Porto, Colecção CIDInE, Porto Editora: 12-32. COSTA, Nilza (2003). A Investigação Educacional e o seu Impacto(e) nas Práticas Educativas: o Caso da Investigação em Didáctica das Ciências. Didáctica e Tecnologia Educativa. Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro. Lição de síntese em Provas de Agregação (não publicada). PATRÍCIO, Manuel Ferreira (1989). O Instituto de Inovação Educacional e a organização da comunidade científico-educacional portuguesa. Inovação, vol.2, nº2: 31-36. VIEIRA, Flávia (2002). Learner autonomy and teacher development: a brief introduction to GT-PA as a learning community. In Vieira, Fávia; Moreira, Maria Alfredo, Barbosa, Isabel & Paiva, Madalena (eds.). Pedagogy for Autonomy and English Learning – Proceedings of the 1st Conference of the Working Group – Pedagogy for Autonomy. Braga, Universidade do Minho, CIE: 1-12. WOOD, Diane R. (2007). Professional learning communities: teachers, knowledge, and knowing. Theory Into Practice, vol. 46, nº4: 281-290.
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