Educational policies: teacher training and professional development in focus

Abstract

The study addresses the way recent researches deal with initial and continuous teacher education policies and attempts to understand how these policies have contributed to the improvement of working conditions, professional development and teaching career. The objectives of this study are to question the application of educational policies for the training and appreciation of educational professionals, confronting the planning and the accomplishment of these policies, the direct or indirect control of the state on professional training practices, and the learning that occurs in informal spaces of social networks that are established among teachers. The research is qualitative in nature and the interpretation of the data is based on studies such as those of Jenny Ozga on research of educational policies and those of Bernadete Gatti and Marli André on training and professional improvement. From the results challenges to the training and improvement of teachers can be verified and indicate the need for articulation between political actions and the reality of these professionals in order to achieve quality in teaching.