Desenvolvimento Profissional Docente: Passado e futuro

The professional development of teachers is regarded as an individual and collective process that should be accomplished in the workplace of the teacher, i.e. the school. Furthermore, it is looked upon as a contribution to the development of the teacher’s professional skills, by means of a variety of both formal and informal experiences. The concept of professional development has changed over the last decade, as a result of increasing understanding of how the teaching to learn processes are created. Indeed, professional development has recently come to be viewed as a long term process, covering different types of opportunities and experiences that are systematically planned to stimulate the development and evolution of the teacher. The professional development of teachers should be conceived in close connection with a search for professional identity by how they define themselves and others. It is a construction of the professional I, which evolves throughout their career and may be influenced by the school, political reforms and settings, is based on personal commitment, the availability to learn to teach, beliefs, values, knowledge on the subjects they teach and how they teach them, past experiences as well as professional vulnerability. Professional identities are a complex web of histories, knowledge, processes and rituals.