This is a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary project involving researchers from different areas - education, sociology, and psychology - and different generations, aiming to contribute to deepening the existing knowledge about the relationships between curricular autonomy and flexibility and teacher involvement and well-being.

It starts from a guiding question: What relationships exist between the development of policies on curricular autonomy and flexibility and professional involvement and well-being of teachers in educational contexts? Its general objective is to understand the relationships between the development of policies on curricular autonomy and flexibility in educational contexts and teachers' professional involvement and well-being.

Its specific objectives are:

• Analyze how policies on curricular autonomy and flexibility were received, interpreted, appropriated, and put into practice by teachers.
• Understand teachers' professional involvement and well-being.
• Identify the types of relationships generated by the exercise of curricular autonomy and flexibility in teachers' professional involvement and well-being. The goal is to study the relationships between proposals for curricular autonomy, teacher involvement in this trajectory initiated in 2016, and teacher well-being. The most appropriate methodological approach will be developed in two phases to allow triangulation between theory and practice.

Objectives

The changes in educational systems, driven by digitization and the societal changes connected to it, have been evident in all countries. Portugal began a curricular and organizational change process in 2016 under the form of "pilot projects" aimed at encouraging the autonomy of schools/clusters to better respond to different audiences in diverse contexts. These experiences contributed to the publication of Decrees No. 54 and No. 55/2018 on July 6, 2018, which reframe the curriculum and school organization.

In 2020, due to unforeseeable reasons - the Covid-19 pandemic - schools, during this ongoing process, had to adapt overnight to remote teaching, a modality previously unknown. This project, covering the years from 2016 to 2023, aims to study the relationship between curricular autonomy and teacher involvement and well-being.

To develop this study, quantitative and qualitative methodologies are planned as follows:

1. i) A questionnaire extended to teachers.
2. ii) Participatory and collaborative research in 3 schools using action research procedures.

The realization of this research may contribute to a better understanding of the processes of construction and involvement in curricular autonomy, from its most direct actors - teachers and schools - as well as the relationships between curricular autonomy and teacher involvement and well-being.

In this context, the innovative factor lies in the contribution to knowledge construction through research conducted by teachers in schools based on their professional experience and the perception of the policies that support their activity.

Research Team

• Elsa Estrela (PI) - CeiED, Lusófona University, Lisbon University Center
• Rosa Serradas Duarte - CeiED, Lusófona University, Lisbon University Center
• Alcina de Oliveira Martins - CeiED, Lusófona University, Porto University Center
• Sónia Vladimira Correia - CeiED, Lusófona University, Lisbon University Center
• Paula Paulino – Hei-Lab, Lusófona University, Lisbon University Center
• Louise dos Santos Lima - CeiED, Lusófona University, Porto University Center
• Susana Oliveira – Phd Candidate in Education,  Lusófona University, Lisbon University Center
• Letícia Feche - Master student in Administração Educacional e Regulação da Educação, Universidade Lusófona, Centro Universitário de Lisboa
• Cristina Dagge Ribeiro - Master student in Administração Educacional e Regulação da Educação, Universidade Lusófona, Centro Universitário de Lisboa
• Rui Trindade (Consultor) – Universidade do Porto

Partners

Departamento de Museologia

Cátedra UNESCO Diversidade, Cidadania e Diversidade Cultural