Inovação e mudança na formação de professores : reflexões sobre o processo de autonomia e flexibilização curricular em duas escolas da região de Lisboa

In a context of an individualized and technological society, with contradictory new mandates directed at school, we are witnessing a universal tendency to introduce systems of curricular innovation, with clear consequences for the meaning and exercise of the teaching profession.Inscribed in the concept of Public Science, which assumes socially rooted and shared knowledge as one that can allow individual and collective development, the study and reflection presented fall on the results collected from the teachers of two school clusters that joined the Projeto de Autonomia e Flexibilidade Curricular (PAFC). In the framework of a qualitative research, three instruments were used for data collection – documents, questionnaires and participant observation – in order to identify the innovation process defined in each school cluster, as well as the conceptions that underlie the teaching practice of the students, namely those that are at the center of the innovation and change process in which they participated : curriculum, teacher and student. The results point to the maintenance of traditional conceptions of curriculum, teacher and student, assuming in relation to the latter a little positive representation, which seems to limit and hinder the innovation processes to which their schools have adhered. At the same time, there is also no development of integrated educational policies that enhance transformation in the classroom. Keywords : innovation ; change ; curricular flexibility ; autonomy