Session Information
08 SES 04 B, Teachers’ Professional Development, Their Roles and Sexuality Education
Paper Session
Contribution
In Portugal, training for teachers of the 1st to 12th grades includes pre-service, specialized and in-service teacher training. Teacher training in sexuality education (SE) emerges principally in this latter context. According to the Portuguese Law, each class has a SE project (Lei n.º60/2009), understood as being part of the entire educational process and one of the components of health promotion (ME, MS, APF, CAN, 2000), where students should be the principal actors. Since sexuality is considered a life area and a space for dialogue, students should be allowed to put forward problems and collaborate in their resolution (CNE, 2005). This is precisely the approach recommended by the Democratic Health Education Paradigm, which is only compatible with a teacher that is open-minded, democratic, co operative and a good listener within a constantly changing school environment that stimulates student participation (Jensen, 1997). Students are seen as social agents and key elements in society, and the evaluation of these projects aims to measure student action competence, which involves: knowledge and insights, visions, project commitment and actions (Jensen, 2000; Jensen & Simovska, 2005; Vilaça, 2006, 2008). These four components could be developed in health education projects when the IVAC approach (Investigation, Vision, Action and Change) is applied to structure the activities and facilitate student participation (Jensen, 1994, 1997; Jensen, Simovska, Larsen, & Holm, 2005; Simovska & Jensen, 2003, 2008, 2009; Simovska, 2004, 2007; Vilaça & Jensen, 2009, 2010).
In this paper, it is argued that action-oriented SE training is the adequate approach to equip teachers, either individually or collectively, to act as trainers in student action-oriented projects and promoters and knowledgeable critics of reforms in the SE area. This vision intends to re-imagine a set of social relations in which teachers and students are seen as learners and work together in a collective effort (Sachs, 2009), where teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) emphasises teacher learning instead of technocratic and instrumental CPD. Reflective teacher training, because of its ability to enable teachers to acquire new teaching concepts and CPD, is a key-instrument in this context. According to Korthagen (2010), Kelchtermans (2009) and Vilaça (2010), teachers’ reflections should include the moral, emotional and political dimensions of teaching, as well as the beliefs, self-representation of teachers and teaching in general. To this end, Korthagen (2004, 2009) proposes the ‘onion model’ that includes six levels of reflection: environment, pedagogical behaviour, competencies, beliefs, identity, and mission as teachers.
Therefore, this paper intends to analyze the role of (self)core reflexion in the process of transformation of practices and CPD of teachers during in-service teacher training on action-oriented SE.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Jensen, B. B. (1997). A case of two paradigms within health education. Health Education Research, 12 (4), 419-428. Jensen, B. B. (2000). Participation, commitment and knowledge as components of pupil’s action competence. In B. B. Jensen, K. Schnack & V. Simovska (Eds.). Critical Environmental and Health Education. Research Issues and Challenges (pp.219-237). Copenhagen: Research Centre for Environmental and Health Education. The Danish University of Education. Korthagen, F. A. J. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teacher and Teaching Education, 20, 77-97. Korthagen, F. (2009). A prática, a teoria e a pessoa na aprendizagem profissional ao longo da vida. In M. A. Flores & A. M. V. Simão(org.). Aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de professores: contextos e perspectivas (pp. 39-60). Mangualde: Edições Pedagogo. Simovska, V. (2007). The changing meanings of participation in school-based health education and health promotion: the participants’ voices. Health Education Research, 22 (6), 864-878. Simovska, V., & Jensen, B. B. (2008). On-line learning environments and participatory health education: teachers’ reflections. J. Curriculum Studies, 40 (5), 651-669. Simovska, V., & Jensen, B. B. (2009). Conceptualizing participation: Health of children and young people. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe. Vilaça, T. (2008). Development dynamics of action-oriented learning on health education. In M. Muñoz, I. Jelínek, Ferreira, F. (org.). Proceedings of the IASK international conference on teaching and learning 2008 (pp. 74-83). Aveiro: IASK, University of Aveiro. Vilaça, T., & Jensen, B. B. (2010). Applying the S-IVAC methodology in schools to explore students’ creativity to solve sexual health problems. In Montané, M., & Salazar, J. (Eds.), ATEE 2009 Annual Conference Proceedings (pp.215 – 227). Brussels, Belgium: ATEE. http://www.atee1.org/uploads/atee_2009_conference_proceedings_final_version.pdf
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.