The PhD Defence in Educational Sciences of candidate Marta Rodrigues will take place at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto (FPCEUP) on 15 July 2024, at 02h.30 Pm. The thesis, entitled“Práticas Socioeducativas de Contratendência: (Re)construção de percursos académicos atípicos e dos saberes e aprendizagens profissionais em educação” was developed under the supervision of  Sofia Marques, Associate Professor of FPCEUP, member of CIIE. Armando  Loureiro, Associate Professor of Universidade de Trás-Os-Montes e Alto Douro.

The session is open to the public.

Evaluation panel:
Chair: Isabel Menezes, Full Professor at FPCEUP

Members:
Manuela Gonçalves, Assistant Professor at the Department of Education and Psychology of the University of Aveiro.
Carlos Alberto Gomes retire Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education of the University of Minho.
Armando Loureiro, Associate Professor at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro - supervisor.
Raquel Monteiro, Visiting Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Maia.
Eunice Macedo, Assistant Professor of FPCEUP
Rita Tavares de Sousa, Researcher of FPCEUP

ABSTRACT:

Educational thinking, in general, and educational processes, in particular, have been enriched by the research that national and international scientific literature has produced on educational interventions designed to promote school success and social inclusion, aimed at children and young people and at professionals involved in the processes of educating and learning. This research, theoretically framed within studies on school failure and on workplaces as contexts of knowledge and professional learning, aimed to generate knowledge on two dimensions of the study of socio-educational practices of countertrend: the successful academic pathways of students at risk of school failure and the construction of knowledge and professional learning of technicians and teachers, particularly through the categories of communities of practice and communities of learning. Using a qualitative approach, a multi-case study was carried out in a municipality located in the north-east of Portugal, anchored in the context of two national policy measures, the Choices programame and the Priority Intervention Educational Territories programme. The qualitative data involved content analysis of official documents from the two projects and the multi-case study carried out through semi-structured interviews with children and young people, technicians, teachers, and institutional managers and focus discussion groups with technicians and teachers. The results show that the socio-educational practices under study, based on the voices and perspectives of the children, young people and the professionals consulted, promote improvements in the participants’ school results, namely in terms of learning, social behaviour, mobilisation to learn and build a strong and sustained relationship with adults who are significant from the learning point of view. The children and young people recognised personal, social, and contextual elements that are incentives and/or impediments in (re)constructing their academic pathways. Ten narratives are presented about the meaning and senses attributed to the socio-educational practices of countertrend in the (re)construction of their academic pathways, namely regarding dimensions of individual, social and academic life. Finally, the results of the research allow us to identify knowledge that is learned and shared in the development of socio-educational practices of countertendency, showing their potential as a space for (re)constructing professional knowledge and learning in education.