Teaching practices of Primary teachers of English: what the Inspeção-Geral da Educação e Ciência reports say

Abstract

English language has recently integrated the Portuguese primary curriculum, having its own guiding documents, which seek to ensure the sequential nature of the learning process throughout compulsory education. With this measure, the aim was to bring Portugal closer to the other European Union countries in terms of language teaching in the early years and to fill in the gaps in the learning of students in the 2nd cycle of basic education. In this sense, the Inspeção-Geral da Educação e Ciência carries out monitoring actions of the teaching practices of the different school groupings, aiming to guide and help to overcome shortcomings in these practices, resulting in reports published on the official website of the public organism. These documents are organised in three areas: curriculum planning, curriculum development and curriculum assessment. In the present text, we propose to identify and analyse the practices of Primary English teachers revealed in those documents. Using webQDA, we analysed the 21 published reports for the 2017/2018 school year. It relied on the categories that emerged from their reading. This is a qualitative and exploratory study. The results show there are more aspects in need of improvement than the most positive ones, particularly in the areas of: i) collaboration and articulation among teachers; ii) reflection by teachers and students on the activities and strategies carried out; and iii) self-assessment. Their relevance constitutes a starting point for the adoption of good educational practices in schools and teacher training.