Beliefs About School: Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

Knowing and analyzing teachers' beliefs contributes to understanding and improving their educational processes. Based on this assumption we propose, in this paper, to present the beliefs of leaderships and teachers about school. This analysis is based on a broader work in which beliefs regarding various aspects were analyzed, as well as teachers' knowledge and practices. This study followed an essentially qualitative methodology in nature, although it also used quantitative analysis. The instruments used to collect data were interviews with the leaders and questionnaires for teachers from 11 schools in the district of Bragança, Portugal, and integrated in the Intermunicipal Community of Terras de Trás os Montes. From the categories and subcategories used, the category School includes subcategories: school functions, school organization, relevance of school, school-family relationship and school-community relationship. The analysis of the interviews with the leaders (group directors, departmental coordinators and class directors) highlights the multiplicity of their views about the school. Emphasis is, among others, given to the school-family relationship, particularly the change in the relationship of parents to the school as the student progresses through the levels of education and, although a positive school-family relationship is identified, a distancing is also felt. The voices of the leaders also emphasize: (i) the relevance of promoting effective communication between school and family; (ii) the existence of positive expectations towards the community (in both directions); (iii) the school as a bureaucratic organization, with resonances in the daily teaching; (iv) the identification of complementary connotations of the functions of the school, on the one hand the schooling of students and, on the other, the socio-affective and evaluative dimensions of students. Regarding the beliefs of the teachers who answered the questionnaire, the focus on "training" stood out within the functions of the school, referring to it not only as "a place for exchanging knowledge", "for learning", but also for "transmitting knowledge", "values and attitudes". School is also perceived as a "place of socialization", "personal growth" and socio-affective.