Towards a deep change in the quality of pedagogy at university

Abstract

Within the current reform of higher education in Europe, teaching quality is one of the priorities of the institutional agendas. However, teaching continues to occupy a minor place as compared to research and it seldom becomes an objet of inquiry. Pedagogical innovation tends to be rather technicist, with no significant effects upon teachers’ professionalism and the status of pedagogy. The present text argues for a deep change in teaching quality illustrated by a movement of pedagogical inquiry that has been developed at the University of Minho since 2000. Within that movement, research is at the service of teaching and professional development, and teachers are seen as agents of inquiry into and change of established cultures, producers and disseminators of pedagogical knowledge, and authors of their own professionality. The analysis of the projects carried out reveals that pedagogical inquiy has a transformative potential, both indivi-dual and collective. However, it presents shortcomings and finds obstacles to its legitimation in cultures where it is a mar-ginal, transitional practice, and where re-search is dissociated from teaching and professional development. Movements like the one presented here go against the grain and are a form of promoting a deep change by enhancing the teachers’ right to become researchers and archi-tects of pedagogy and their own profession.

Keywords

• mudança profunda
• qualidade
• pedagogia
• universidade