Construction of School Ethos: Based on Moral Values, Changes in Time, Space, and Relationships

• In Event: Some Engage, Others Don't: New Directions on the Development of Teachers' Professional Ethos

Abstract

Introduction and Theoretical Considerations
The school, as we know, structured in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on principles of exclusion and homogenization, there seems not to be catching on the demands of an inclusive education based on ethics and citizenship. This situation has been impacting the goals of quality desired by contemporary societies. One way to face this challenge is through the re-invention of schools, which involves changes in the contents, form and relationships between teachers and students within the educational spaces.

In our perspective, educational policies and its stakeholders should aim to form teachers that are active in the process of constructing a school ethos based on moral values and the development of citizenship, in a perspective that at the same time they can influence schools and students to build a moral climate in their community and help in the re-invention of schools. How to develop this capacity in teacher’s training programs is a longtime discussion all around the world.


Method
Research Design
Based on a methodological concept that people learn by doing and in a constructivist epistemology, we have designed a graduate program where in-service teachers had to work in collaborative and cooperative groups in the search for solutions to ethics and citizenship problems in their own schools.

The contents of the program were organized to cross the traditional borders and disciplinary methods, including the following topics: The construction of values in Education; Community and citizenship education; Health at school; Human rights education; Democratic life at school; Ethics and teaching; Inclusive Education: possibilities, advances and challenges; Cross-cutting citizenship themes and Project-based strategies.

Teacher’s were invited to understand new forms of education, rethinking the time, space, and relationships in their school, incorporating educational proposals based on “open distance learning”, collaborative and cooperative spaces for the production of knowledge, and the use of ICT in teaching and learning relationships, in a blended learning perspective.


Preliminary Results
Problem and Project-Based Learning and Design Thinking were the core methods adopted in the program to change the relationships between teachers and students. Working in groups, teachers had to integrate multidisciplinary and interactive collaboration with the creation of innovative products, systems, and services that focus on the community needs, dreams, and behaviors. To develop the projects and design solutions, they learned to listen and understand the people to be affected by the solutions being created.

Conclusion and Look out
In the symposium, the strategies used to develop the program and the teachers’ practice will be presented, as well as some results showing how the participants introduced the methods they learned in curriculum projects, fostering the construction of a school ethos based on moral values and the development of citizenship.

Authors

• Ulisses Ferreira Araujo, University of Sao Paulo

• Valeria Arantes, University of Sao Paulo