Teachers' perspectives on changes/continuities in Portuguese higher education: common and specific perspectives on three institutional realities

Abstract

Transformation of Higher Education (HE) is unequivocal, namely in terms of policies and conditions of access to this level of education, of the teaching-learning process, of the roles and identities of teachers and students, creating new opportunities and challenges that require a constant reinvention of the Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Mobilizing a qualitative method, this article aims to reflect the common perspectives of Professors with more than 20 years of teaching experience on the continuities and changes that have taken place in HE in recent decades, as well as the specific visions that arise from the institutional realities to which they are involved. Three focus groups (Ntotal = 19) were held in three HEI. Data were processed using thematic analysis method. As the main transformations, emerge the massification and democratization of HE, with reflexes in the pedagogical relationship and practices, in the curriculum structuring and evaluation, in the quality of scientific production. For future, emerged the digitalization of education and the adaptation pedagogical and assessment practices to new technologies and teaching modalities. Two of the HEIs showed a greater focus on curricular, pedagogical and student learning issues. In the third HEI, transformations resulting from the technological revolution were highlighted.