Estudo exploratório sobre currículo de formação inicial e identidade profissional de docentes do 1º CEB: indícios sobre o papel do envolvimento dos estudantes na gestão do seu currículo de formação

Abstract

In this paper we present and discuss the partial results of two research studies. These results constitute themselves as models of analysis for future research. The two studies aim at identifying dimensions of primary teachers’ education curriculum that are related with their professional identity building. One of these studies uses content analysis in order to study social and political documents about teachers’ education, dating from the last eighties and the last nineties. In this study we have come to the conclusion that there have been both strong and light changes in teachers’ education during those two decades. Strong changes are related with the empowerment of teachers’ status. Areas of light changes are more concerned with aspects of teachers’ education that depend on personal and professional relationships development in the educational process. So far, we can point out that only recently has the participation of students in the management of their own curriculum become a quality criterion in the evaluation of teachers’ education. Since its beginning, the other research study puts into relation dimensions of the curriculum held at Escola do Magistério Primário do Porto, in 1979, with life stories written in first hand by its former students. Data show that the dimension of «hidden curriculum» is considered by the students to be the most important vector in their teachers’ education. It caused and steel causes strong impact in the way they conceptualise their professional practice.