A avaliação das escolas: efeitos da avaliação externa nas dinâmicas de autoavaliação da escola

No contexto educativo português existem, atualmente, orientações legais para que as escolas sejam, por um lado, sujeitas a processos de avaliação externa e, por outro, induzidas a criar mecanismos de autoavaliação. Embora a escola seja, pelo menos em parte, um “locus de produção normativa”, na prática não tem sido fácil o diálogo entre a avaliação externa e os processos de mudança e melhoria, através da autoavaliação institucional. Num contexto onde as politicas nem sempre criam os estímulos e as condições adequadas, a ação organizacional em torno dos processos avaliativos acaba por refletir o jogo dos atores. Face à “natureza política” da avaliação, as escolas e os seus atores recorrem a “soluções organizacionais” que lhes permitem, em função dos interesses e dos objetivos individuais e organizativos, gerir as pressões e as expetativas do seu meio institucional. O presente trabalho pretende encontrar respostas sobre os efeitos do programa de avaliação externa das escolas (AEE) nas dinâmicas de autoavaliação e nos planos de ação para a melhoria da escola. Trata-se de uma investigação inserida numa matriz de cariz essencialmente qualitativo que opta pelo estudo de casos múltiplos. A informação foi recolhida através de várias fontes: observação direta, grupo focal (focus group), entrevistas, inquérito por questionário e análise documental. Os resultados tendem a evidenciar que as organizações educativas, nas respostas às prescrições externas para a avaliação e melhoria da escola recorrem a estratégias e táticas plurais, de tal modo que as mudanças que ocorrem, mais do que respostas à necessidade de eficácia e melhoria interna da escola, traduzem-se em processos de adaptação, que variam consoante as tensões existentes entre o contexto institucional e o ambiente competitivo onde as escolas estão inseridas; Abstract: The Evaluation of Schools: Effects of External Evaluation in the dynamics of Self-evaluation of Schools In the Portuguese educational context, there are currently legal guidelines for schools to be subject to external evaluation process, on the one hand, and on the other hand induced to create self-assessment mechanisms. Although the school is at least partly a "normative production locus", in practice the dialogue between the external evaluation and the processes of change and improvement through institutional self-assessment has not been easy. In a context where the policies do not always create the incentives and the right conditions, the organizational action around the evaluative process ends up reflecting the set of actors. Before the "political nature" of the evaluation, the schools and their actors recur to "organizational solutions" that allow them, in the interests of individual and organizational goals, to manage the pressures and expectations of its institutional environment. This work aims at finding answers to the effects of the External Schools Evaluation (ESE) programme, in the dynamics of self-evaluation and action plans for the improvement of school. It is an investigation inserted into an oriented matrix, essentially of qualitative nature that opts for multiple case studies. The information was collected through various sources: direct observation, focus group, interviews, questionnaire survey and document analysis. The results tend to show that educational organizations, in response to the external requirements for assessing and improving, use plural strategies and tactics. Similarly, the changes that occur in the structures, processes and practices, more than answers to the need for efficiency and indoor improvement of the school, result into adjustment processes, that change according to the existing tensions between the institutional context and the competitive environment where schools are located.

Authentic Leadership Questionnaire: invariance between samples of Brazilian and Portuguese employees

The Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) is used to assess authentic leadership (AL). Although ALQ is often used in empirical research, cross-cultural studies with this measure are scarce. Aiming to contribute to filling this gap, this study assesses the invariance of the ALQ measure between samples of Brazilian (N = 1019) and Portuguese (N = 842) employees. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and the results showed the invariance of the first- and second-order factor models between the Brazilian and Portuguese samples. The results are discussed considering their cultural setting, with the study’s limitations and future research directions being pointed out.