Resumen de Teacher collaboration and professional development: findings from a case study
Maria Manuela Unas, Sandra Raquel Gonçalves Fernandes, Eusébio André Machado, Maria Assunção Flores
This paper is part of a broader international research project, which includes eight case studies carried out in public schools in Portugal and in Chile. It is a comparative study, which aims to understand the way teachers describe formal and informal opportunities for collaboration in their schools and its effect in terms of practical knowledge; to identify the enablers and inhibitors that influence professional collaborative learning at school; to understand the role of teacher evaluation and student academic results on teacher’s professional development; to analyse how teachers with different skills, experiences and schools view their own professional development. In this case study, a public school, located in the north of Portugal, with sixty years of history, was selected. The participants in the study are teachers from different disciplinary areas and teaching departments. The school includes elementary and secondary school level, with regular and professional study programmes. Data collection is based on questionnaires applied to teachers and interviews to the school director and to eight teachers, mainly coordinators of teaching departments. Data were collected between October and December 2016 and the results will be, at the moment, analysed and discussed according the qualitative data obtained through the interviews. Conclusions and implications for teacher collaboration and professional development will be discussed in the paper.
