Educational Policies and the Quality of Teaching: Perceptions of Portuguese Teachers

Ana Maria Costa E Silva,Rosalinda Herdeiro

doi:10.4236/ce.2014.511107

Abstract

The educational and curricular policies of the last two decades reflect attention to the quality of teaching by associating it with educational success, the improvement of student learning and the professional development of teachers. In this article we present some of the results of an investigation carried out with Portuguese teachers from the first cycle of basic education, who had, as their main objective, the understanding of the impact of educational and curricular policies on the development and identity of teachers, as well on the quality of teaching. We took as references various legal documents, especially the new Statute for a Teaching Career (STC) and the Evaluation of Teacher Performance (ETP) and other programs implemented by the Portuguese Ministry of Education. This longitudinal study was carried out over three years and it adopted a methodology of both a qualitative and quantitative nature, which permitted us to understand the perceptions of teachers of the first cycle of basic education using: 1) written and oral biographical narratives; 2) discussion groups formed specially for the purpose; and 3) replies from 249 questionnaires returned by teachers of this cycle. In this text we will report the results of analyzing the replies from the questionnaires and the statistical analysis made with the Chi-squared Test and the T-Test, which corroborate other studies carried out, particularly at an international level and which reveal that the teachers felt that the educational policies interfered negatively with their work, thus provoking: a weakening of their professional relationships, interaction with their peers and their collaborative work, as well as professional demotivation and disinvestment with a resulting negative impact on the quality of their teaching.

Highlights

One of the present objectives of Portuguese educational policies is the raising of basic competencies, as well as the training and qualification levels of the Portuguese through the expansion of opportunities for young people and adults to obtain qualifications, the promotion of an improvement in the quality of student learning and the enhancement of the work of the teaching profession
Establishing a relationship between the relevance of professional recognition and the current legislation in Portugal, namely, the new Statute for a Teaching Career (STC) and the exemplary Evaluation of Teacher Performance (ETP), which promote and reward professional merit expressed in terms of “Very Good” and “Excellent”, on the one side, as a form of recognition of the professional investment of teachers in the profession, while, on the other side, limiting progression in the career, since we perceived that teachers are faced with a higher degree of difficulty in deciding which path to take to obtain due professional recognition
In the end the teachers feel themselves deprived of professional recognition and progression in their career, which is reflected in professional development and in theconstruction of their professional identity

Summary

Introduction

One of the present objectives of Portuguese educational policies is the raising of basic competencies, as well as the training and qualification levels of the Portuguese through the expansion of opportunities for young people and adults to obtain qualifications, the promotion of an improvement in the quality of student learning and the enhancement of the work of the teaching profession. In the same way that the European level developed successive programs (Education and Training 2010, Education and Training 2015 and Education and Training 2020) destined to strengthen the efficiency of educational systems, which should progressively result in better learning result. Membership of these programs brought Portugal new challenges in the search for appropriate responses to the commitments adopted at the national and European levels. One can point out that the progress realized with these programs appears to indicate a general improvement of the national education and training systems, in the domains of lifelong learning and in the acquisition of essential competencies at all levels of teaching. This, reinforced the necessity of investing even more in education and training systems regardless of the economic and social recession that has been happening in Europe

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