Abstract
This study explores teachers’ professional development within art experiences, emphasising their multidimensional and context-specific characteristics. It highlights the interplay of personal, social, and cultural aspects of elementary teachers’ lives. Using a narrative-biographical methodology, the stories of the teachers Rosa do Mar, Kleber, and Elisabete from Portuguese and Brazilian schools are analysed. The findings underscore the significance of art in shaping professional development and fostering a dynamic school culture. This is done through a proposal for a school contract on art experiences based on a collaborative approach that resists hegemonic ideals and prioritises care. The results call for acknowledgement of the personal and professional dimensions of teachers’ lives, fostering artistic practices that value authorial processes, and ensuring school leaders and policymakers provide support and resources. The study advocates for critical reflection, promoting a personal experiential understanding of teachers’ professional development within art experiences.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Professional Development in Education |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Feb 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 International Professional Development Association (IPDA).
Funding
The work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - ANDRÉ FREITAS [PD/BD/128279/2017]and [COVID/BD/151618/2021]; CIIE FPCEUP [UIDB/00167/2020] and [UIDP/00167/2020]. Andre Freitas’s research is supported by FCT – Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, I.P., under the PortugueseFoundation for Science and Technology - Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus contract ‘Future-orientedStories of Digital Schools’ Capital: Imagining Times, Places and Sociabilities of Education’ (2023.08557.CEECIND),as well as by project reference UIDB/4114/2020 and DOI identifier https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/04114/2020. Thiswork was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP (FCT), within the multi-year funding awardedto CIIE [grants no. UIDB/00167/2020 and UIDP/00167/2020]. André Freitas acknowledges FCT funding for his PhD,under the FCT PhD Programme in Education Sciences of the University of Porto [grants no. PD/BD/128279/2017;and https://doi.org/10.54499/COVID/BD/151618/2021].
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | |
| Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus | |
| Future-oriented Stories of Digital Schools | 2023.08557 |
Keywords
- Art experience
- elementary teachers
- narrative methodology
- school education
- teachers’ professional development