Teaching and integration in basic education in Portugal

This paper presents research which questions the relationship between traditional education and democratic education in Portuguese schools in order to understand the reason an education supported by the standardization of methods and programs is maintained instead of a participatory pedagogy, which is more appropriate to teaching and for the overall development of the child. Methodologically speaking, the study is based on guiding principles of research-action, studying the potential practices of integrated education and the contributions of training in context. The results emerging from the discourse with the collaborating interviewees pointed out an insufficient training (initial and continuing) for the practice of integrated and participatory education and that disciplinary fragmentation is also a constraining factor. Despite the rhetoric of the need to redefine the teacher's work, namely: self-reflection about practices, sharing these practices with their peers in professional development and lifelong learning, the cooperative work focuses almost solely on pair sharing. The discourse analysis also confirms that the hypothesis of teaching practices tends to be more of a transmission pedagogy than a participatory pedagogy.

Teaching and integration in basic education in Portugal Conference Paper