Marisa Carvalho

Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (Schoolwide PBIS) has been identified as a framework that supports schools in promoting positive behavior and preventing and managing behavior problems. The Decree-Law no. 54/2018 in Portugal leads schools to implement multitiered support systems for all students, integrating learning, social–emotional, and behavioral dimensions. Schoolwide PBIS aligns with the aims and principles of this legislation. However, to our knowledge, studies have yet to map Schoolwide PBIS practices in Portuguese schools. This study presents the results from a survey that aimed to explore the practice of Schoolwide PBIS features in Portuguese schools from the perspectives of 375 school psychologists and to analyze self-reported knowledge regarding the Schoolwide PBIS framework and its implementation in schools. Results suggest a limited Schoolwide PBIS implementation in Portuguese schools, with a meager percentage of school psychologists reporting a higher level of knowledge about the framework and the majority mentioning knowing little or nothing about Schoolwide PBIS. The results evidence how complex and challenging the adoption and implementation of Schoolwide PBIS can be, although there is strong evidence of its efficacy and relevance in inclusive contexts.

This study examines Portuguese teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education and how teachers' self‐efficacy towards inclusion and other sociodemographic and professional variables relate and predict teachers' attitudes. In total, 539 Portuguese teachers participated. Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education scale, Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire were used to collect data. The results indicate that teachers' attitudes towards inclusion were generally positive. However, teachers‐related variables (e.g., teachers' self‐efficacy, teaching experience, previous training, and knowledge about educational laws and policies) influence teachers' attitudes in a complex and dynamic way. Implications for policies, practices and research are presented.

School psychologists can support schools in implementing inclusive practices. In Portugal, the Decree-Law 54/2018 has set the country on the path to inclusive education based on whole-school approaches. This policy shift demands a change in school psychologists’ practices to be agents for systems change versus traditional roles (such as assessing and counseling students). An e-learning training course was developed and implemented by nine psychologists through a partnership between the Ministry of Education and the Portuguese Psychology Association, focused on the Multi-tiered Systems of Support framework for constructing inclusive schools. The main aim was to empower school psychologists to support adequate, inclusive, and multi-tiered intervention responses in their schools, resourcing a collaborative and supervised approach. From all Portuguese regions, 327 psychologists participated in the training from October 2020 to April 2021. This article focuses on the trainers’ experiences of training, collected through a focus group, reflecting on the challenges, opportunities, and necessary improvements for future training in school psychologists in Portugal on this topic. Trainers have identified organizational and pedagogical aspects as critical to the training delivery and quality that should be addressed in future training courses for school psychologists.

Inclusion is considered a foundation for quality education, and teachers’ inclusive practices are essential for success in mainstream classrooms. Portugal has been making progressive improvements in its policies for inclusive education, although there is little consistency in school practices within or between schools. Moreover, data identifying the personal and career variables relevant to teachers’ inclusive practices in Portugal are scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between teachers’ inclusive practices and personal and career-based characteristics, including gender, level of teaching, years of experience, roles performed at school, and perception of inclusive resources. The participants were 924 teachers who worked in private and public schools in Portugal. Regression analysis showed that perceived inclusive resources, level of teaching, and gender predicted variance in inclusive practices. Mean difference analyses revealed that teachers at the lower levels of teaching, females, and teachers reporting more inclusive resources had the highest scores for inclusive practices. These findings are discussed in terms of their practical relevance for inclusive school systems.

O planeamento estratégico e a ação estratégica foram identificados como marcos valiosos para a melhoria da escola. Por conseguinte, as reformas escolares em diferentes partes do mundo exigiram um planeamento formal para apoiar a melhoria. No entanto, o planeamento nem sempre é totalmente adotado e baseado em conhecimento, o que levanta questões sobre a eficácia das escolas no planeamento estratégico e nos processos de ação. Nesse sentido, é importante desenvolver uma melhor compreensão do planeamento e da ação estratégicos. Este estudo centra-se nos processos de planeamento nas escolas portuguesas, explorando a forma como três escolas se envolveram em processos de planeamento estratégico de ação. Foi realizado um estudo qualitativo. Foram identificados os processos estratégicos das escolas, os fatores críticos para uma ação e planeamento estratégicos de alta qualidade e os resultados percebidos de planos de ação estratégica. Os resultados indicam que as escolas adotaram planos de ação estratégica, apesar das dificuldades encontradas durante o processo de planeamento e implementação. O planeamento foi limitado por prazos bem como pelas limitadas oportunidades de participação dos professores e de outros intervenientes educativos. Apoio financeiro e recursos humanos limitados foram identificados como fatores que dificultam a implementação do plano. O compromisso com a missão escolar foi identificado como o principal fator que facilita o planeamento e a ação. Os resultados deste estudo apontam para desafios significativos para os decisores políticos e líderes escolares. Também tem implicações relevantes para pesquisas futuras relacionadas com a melhoria escolar.

Strategy and strategic leadership are critical issues for school leaders. However, strategy as a field of research has largely been overlooked within the educational leadership literature. Most of the theoretical and empirical work on strategy and strategic leadership over the past decades has been related to non-educational settings, and scholarship devoted to these issues in education is still minimal. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant research regarding strategy and strategic leadership, identifying any gaps in the literature that could inform future research agendas and evidence for practice. The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework of Arksey and O’Malley. The results indicate that there is scarce literature about strategy and that timid steps have been made toward a more integrated and comprehensive model of strategic leadership. It is necessary to expand research into more complex, longitudinal, and explanatory ways due to a better understanding of these constructs.

In times such as this pandemic, where the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in school shutdowns, emergency remote learning was implemented in several countries and different educational settings. School closures made it challenging for special education teachers to support their children with special needs and families. This research aimed to identify the support provided by Spanish teachers in special education schools to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who exhibit challenging behaviour and the support given to their families. Data were collected from 22 teachers from seven special education schools by using focus group interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse, and report patterns within the data. The results show that teachers deployed many different interventions to provide adequate support to their students and families, such as delivering materials to families, communicating in diverse ways, providing academic or functional tasks, and working with other services. Despite these efforts, teachers also reported difficulties when providing support to students and families. Therefore, future research needs to continue exploring experiences during COVID-19 to inform more accurate educational practices, especially considering children with special needs.

Schools in various parts of the world adopt plans or projects to improve the quality of school processes and students’ learning. Therefore, it is important to understand the processes of strategic planning such as teachers’ participation on decision making related to school plans. Apparently a limited number of studies have hitherto been conducted on teachers’ participation in strategic planning. The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers’ participation in decision making and strategic action planning in Portuguese schools. A survey employing self-administered scales was taken. Teachers' participation, other stakeholders’ participation, planning, and decision making, professional development, plans’ importance and validation, and ownership were the dimensions considered. Data were collected from 804 Portuguese teachers. Participants reported moderate to high levels of participation in strategic action plans, but they also reported moderate to low levels of participation in overall school decisions, plans’ importance and validation, sense of ownership and recognition of relevant opportunities for professional development. These results indicate that participation and collaboration are essential determinants of plan and action success in educational contexts. The participative nature of decision making and strategic planning seems to underscore the relevance, value and adequacy of schools’ plans from the perspective of teachers. However, differences in these dimensions related to teachers’ experience and professional roles also point to lower levels of participation from some teachers, which may hinder their involvement in school actions and improvement. This study suggests the need to explore the dominant types of participation and collaboration in Portuguese schools and to analyse the importance of other variables.