This exploratory research starts from the question: what are the processes of professional learning that are undertaken and experienced in In-Service Teacher Education in Portugal and Scotland? Working with teacher-students and teacher-educators, the objectives are:

• to analyse the processes through which learners internalize and transform their understanding of professionalism
• to identify how do educators conceptualize and teach professionalism
• to understand how contextual and cultural factors influence the teaching and learning of professionalism.

This study examines the friction between top-down curriculum policies and the exercise of teacher agency. By focusing on the dual contexts of Portugal and Scotland, the paper argues that such tensions can be effectively negotiated within Teacher Education, where the teaching and learning of professionalism act as a bridge between policy requirements and classroom autonomy.

The paper is focused on studying Teachers’ Professionalism aligned with the epistemological stance of sustainable professional learning as proposed by Flores (2017). This approach considers professional learning as a continuous process, integrating not only the professional identity and professionalism of teachers but also educational, social, cultural, and political ethics.

Since 2015, educational policies in Portugal have been centred on a competence-based curriculum, flexible and often grounded in the autonomy of schools and teachers to foster ongoing innovation. Alongside a new curriculum framework, competences students should acquire over 12 years of schooling were set up (Martins et al., 2017). 

In Scotland teachers were positioned as agents of change within the framework of the Curriculum for Excellence and values of social justice and trust were introduced to professional standards.

Teacher agency emerges as relevant in understanding how teachers develop their professionalism and identify the factors needed to enhance their decision-making. Priestley and Biesta’s (2026) Ecological Approach to Teacher Agency is used as a theoretical-methodological framework to examine and identify interactions within the domains that foster agency. Professional narrative enquiry and the theory of contexts allow for a detailed examination of the interactions between individuals, structures, and cultural practices within specific contexts (Goodson, 2013).

This research adopts a qualitative case study design to explore the complex layers of teacher professionalism within the postgraduate landscapes of Portugal and Scotland. By focusing on Master’s in Education programs, the study examines a pivotal transition point: where experienced practitioners move beyond their roles as classroom teachers toward broader leadership and influence. The study involves two primary groups of participants across both national contexts: teacher-students—practicing educators enrolled in Master’s programs to advance their professional roles—and teacher-educators responsible for delivering these programs. This dual perspective allows for a nuanced understanding of how professionalism is both taught and lived. Data collection is triangulated through two main channels: - Document Analysis: A systematic review of national policy frameworks and university curricula to identify the structural expectations placed upon postgraduate teacher education. - Focus Groups: Semi-structured discussions with both students and educators. The number of participants in each FG is between 6 and 10. These sessions are designed to capture collective insights into the transition from "classroom practitioner" to "educational leader," focusing on how this shift is negotiated in different cultural settings. The study employs a hybrid thematic analysis, balancing theoretical rigor with a sensitivity to new insights. - Deductive Analysis: Data are initially coded utilizing categories such as Contextual Mediators, Conceptualizations of Professionalism, and Teacher Agency. This stage specifically examines how teachers move from the micro-level of the classroom to the meso and macro levels of school-wide policy. Furthermore, we analyze the Deconstruction of Experience, observing how returning to academia prompts teachers to question their established identities and develop new Leadership Dispositions. - Inductive Analysis: To ensure the research remains grounded in the participants' lived realities, an inductive approach is used to capture themes emerging from the unique cultural and linguistic specificities of the Portuguese and Scottish contexts. Teacher-students in this study are not mere "subjects" of research, but expert practitioners and co-constructors of knowledge. As researchers, we maintain a non-hierarchical stance, acknowledging that our own professional backgrounds and the specific cultural histories of Portugal and Scotland shape the analytical process. By valuing the voices of these "teachers-as-researchers," we aim to bridge the gap between academic theory and the practical complexities of the teaching profession, ensuring the research process itself mirrors the democratic and collaborative professionalism it seeks to describe.

The study anticipates ethical, social, and educational impacts. From an ethical standpoint, it values the voices of teacher-students and teacher-educators as knowledgeable subjects, recognising them as co-authors of the research process and promoting non-hierarchical and respectful participation. They will contribute to relevant comparative research between Portugal and Scotland, with the potential to inform future policies and programmes. Through collaboration with peers and researchers, teacher-students will gain new perspectives on cultural and contextual influences and will be able to identify innovative strategies for teaching professionalism. Above all, their contributions will have a lasting impact on how future teachers develop their professional identities. The findings reveal a profound alignment between the intentionality of teacher-educators and the transformative agency of teacher-students, though both navigate a landscape of significant systemic tension. There seems to be a pedagogical scaffolding allowing teachers the transition from curriculum "implementers" to becoming "authors" of their practice, a shift fueled by the acquisition of a robust theoretical approaches that legitimizes their professional decisions. However, this ecological growth is constantly challenged by neoliberal structural constraints—specifically the "temporal straitjacket" of bureaucracy and a culture of "teaching to the test. Furthermore, Master’s degree is conceived not merely as an academic milestone, but as a collaborative site of resistance, where professional identity is reconfigured as a lifelong, multifaceted project centered on collective leadership, ethical mediation, and social justice in both the Portuguese and Scottish contexts.

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