Main Content
Session Information
10 SES 13 B, Advancing Professionalism in Teaching: Professional standards and teacher quality
Symposium
Contribution
The goal of this paper is to examine recent trends and findings from research on standards in Portugal. This paper will report on the preliminary results of the multi-country study on professional standards for teachers which has been conducted in Portugal. Data were collected through a questionnaire with teachers from pre-school to secondary school. In Portugal, the need to clarify the professional profile for teaching led to the identification of four key dimensions: professional, social and ethical dimension; development of teaching and learning; participation at school and relationship with the educational community; training and professional development in a lifelong perspective. These were defined in 2001 by the Ministry of Education. In October 2010, standards to evaluate teachers’ performance were identified at a national level based upon the four key dimensions of the professional profile. According to the legal text, the national standards aimed at contributing to guide teachers’ work, stimulating self-reflection, articulating assessment of teachers’ performance and promoting a rich and constructive debate about teacher professionalism. Standards define the key characteristics of the teaching profession and the professional tasks, identifying at the same time the nature, knowledge and demands of the teaching profession. Also, standards are a national reference to build a just and reliable mechanism to evaluate teachers and to promote their professional development. However, the national standards for teacher evaluation purposes were in place in the Portuguese context only for 2 years (2010-2012). In 2012 they were abolished and were replaced by national parameters to assess teacher performance. The main data sources are (i) the analysis of the legal framework and its implementation within the context of teacher evaluation; (ii) preliminary findings from the survey of teachers conducted in Portugal as part of the multi-country study. The main findings of this paper point to convergences and divergences in teachers’ views of the standards. Some of them are against the use of standards as they see them within a logic of control of their work. They are critical of the ways they have been defined and implemented (according to a top-down perspective) and they stress the lack of debate in schools about the use of standards and the need to pay attention to the context. Other teachers see them as a way of enhancing teacher professionalism and professional dialogue.
References
Ingvarson, L., (2002) Development of a national standards framework for the teaching profession Issues Paper, Australian Council for Educational Research, Available online at http://research.acer.edu.au/teaching_standards/7/ Sachs, J., (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press Smith, E., (2005), ‘Raising standards in American schools: The case of No Child Left Behind,’ Journal of Education Policy, 20(4), pp507-524.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
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