Leaving or Staying in Teaching? Tensions and Dilemmas of Teachers in a Context of Intensive School Reform

• In Event: Lives of Teachers Roundtable

Abstract

This paper focuses on teachers’ views of the teaching profession and how they live it in a particularly challenging context as is the Portuguese case. In total, 1307 teachers participated in the study. Findings show that most teachers feel overwhelmed by policy initiatives and the greater demands and pressures over their work and the increase of bureaucracy in teaching. Whilst they value the individual and collegial dimensions of their professionalism with a focus on what they consider to be the core issues of their profession (their work with students and peers), they also spoke of managerial and functional issues that they do not consider the most relevant ones but which influence the ways in which they exercise their professionalism.

Author

• Maria A. Flores, Minho University, Portugal