Initial Teacher Education Policies in Portugal in the Bologna Process: An intra-institutional analysis based on training practices

Abstract

State of the art on the processes of Initial Teacher Education in Portugal (Estrela et al., 2002) revealed serious problems in the organization and functioning of these courses and, consequently, the need to produce significant changes. In this context, the Bologna Process and the Legal Framework for Teaching Professional Qualifications (2007) should be an opportunity to make the necessary changes in Teacher Education, susceptible to improve its quality. This paper presents some results of a qualitative study which data were collected by semi-structured interviews addressed to teachers, students, members of the boards of management and cooperating teachers. The analysis focused on the perceptions of these actors about the recent policies of Higher Education and Teacher Training in order to understand advances and limitations involved in the construction of the educational reform process currently underway. The results obtained allow us to state that, in general, is assigned relevance to this process at the level of the political guidelines, but there are reservations about its operation.

Keywords: Initial Teacher Education, Bologna Process, educational policies for Higher Education, change and educational innovation.