Strangers in the Classroom? Learning ways of being and teaching in Education and Training Courses in Portugal

This paper discusses the social representation and the teacher identity in Education and Training Courses, one of the most discredit and stigmatized educational provision in Portugal which aims to combat school failure and dropout. For this purpose we interviewed 10 teachers of Education and Training Courses on three public schools in Lisbon. The findings show that teachers shared a positive social representation despite raised major problems on the functioning and on the attributes of student population. This positive view of Education and Training Courses is due to the emotional linkage that re-shapes the teacher identity and challenges the professional role and practices on a daily basis.