European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.842647 TEACHER AND KINDERGARTEN TEACHER LIFELONG TRAINING – THE CEFOPNA Miguel Castroi Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Portugal Abstract: The training of teachers and kindergarten teachers is central in the educational system. This training not only allows teachers to become scientifically, pedagogically and didactically updated, but it also represents a time for reflection that helps establish new ways and renew practices, adjusting them to the school reality, which reflects the general socio-economic context. The formation of a professional group responsible for the education of children and young people has led some teachers to conceptualize and theorize the training, development and the specificity of the profession. Morais and Medeiros, Alarcão and Tavares, Bridge, Canário Nóvoa and Formosinho in Portugal and Marcelo García, Fullan and Hargraves, Day or Guskey are some of the authors who support the need for training and development of the teacher as an actor of change in the system. Moreover, they highlight the necessity of reflection and development of the specific nature of teaching and its practice. In Portugal, the Basic Law on Education (1986) recognizes education as a right of teachers, in order to update and reflect on scientific knowledge and specific skills. This will be the basis of their career. DecreeLaw 344/89 was the first to regulate the continuous training process. Today the Decree Law 22 of 2014 regulates the formative aspects of the profession. Despite evolving in the formative approach of teachers, actually it is based on training sessions, workshops and seminars specifically for teachers’ groups, according to the needs identified by schools or induced by the various educational reforms. From 776 surveys to teachers, from the CEFOPNA database, we established the teachers’ views on training - compulsory for their career, but voluntary for their dignity and qualification as professionals. The results show that teachers, although attending the training because it is mandatory, they also do it to be updated and contact with new teaching didactics. In addition to Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 9 Miguel Castro TEACHER AND KINDERGARTEN TEACHER LIFELONG TRAINING – THE CEFOPNA these objectives, the formations become meeting places to exchange experiences and projects that allow self-reflection and professional development, which is as positive as the formation curriculum. Thus, a hypothesis to consider is to take into account for the teaching career evaluation, the frequency of informal spaces (in schools or groups) to exchange experiences and reflections, which can contribute to the development and improvement of the quality of education, as much as the traditional training. Keywords: training of teachers and kindergarten teachers; global development of teachers; CEFOPNA 1. The Kaleidoscope of the Teaching Profession It is a fact that when entering a classroom in 1916 or 2016, nothing substantial has changed in the shape and organization of the space. The major changes are related to the materials with which the furniture is made and the technology that has been introduced. I believe that doing the same evaluation for teaching is somewhat exaggerated and unfair to teachers. In terms of pedagogy, didactics, content and the training and capacity of teachers and educators or kindergarten teachers themselves, there is a huge difference to better adapt to the needs of the realities in which they live. After the Second World War - and especially since the 1960s - the democratization of Western societies, the raising of living standards and the generalization of access to information (today, with the Internet, information is omnipresent, although its quality can be questioned), led to a change in access to schooling and forced teachers to make profound changes in their modus operandi. In no profession is someone asked for more than having the skills, knowledge and commitment; however, to a teacher it isn’t enough to have scientific, pedagogic or didactic knowledge, since he will have to perform very varied functions in other areas, without which he cannot achieve his goal - student success. “Exige-se do professor um conhecimento pedagógico e didático adequados à multiplicidade de situações com que se depara: além de ter de dominar os conteúdos que leciona, deverá ainda promover e ser facilitador da aprendizagem, estar atento aos alunos, organizar o trabalho na sala de aula, diferenciar e diversificar os métodos, tendo em conta a heterogeneidade dos alunos. Para além destes aspetos deverá também ter em conta a estabilidade e o equilíbrio emocional e afetivo de todos os alunos, assim como os aspetos de caráter social da turma.” (Ventura dos Santos, 2013: 10) Psychologist, social worker, sociocultural animator are some of the areas that teachers and educators have to know and have some bases on to be able to effectively European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 10 Miguel Castro TEACHER AND KINDERGARTEN TEACHER LIFELONG TRAINING – THE CEFOPNA deal with children. This means that teachers have to invest in training (formal or nonformal) in non-educational areas and often get dispersed in this vastness of bureaucratic tasks and procedures, leaving behind what should be the focus of their profession. This can lead to a demotivation of teachers and to a poor professional self-esteem. At the same time, the omnipresence of information and the immense amount of opinion-makers who, in one way or another, show us reality through the numerous channels of communication, lead the ordinary citizen to feel in possession of pseudoscientific knowledge about all areas. This attitude on the part of the citizens leads to an increasing devaluation of the teaching profession and the teachers. At the time of this writing (2017), there is no moderately informed individual who has no opinion about the Nobel Prize for Literature 2016 - deserved, undeserved / poet or writer / literature versus song lyrics... Suddenly it’s like we all have doctorates in comparative literature. If the teacher in the class expresses an opinion, he or she will have a good chance that the parents will make a poor idea of it. However, if the teacher continues to insist on the troubadour literature, he is accused of not incorporating into his practices the current aspects, so that the students are motivated to the classes and area of knowledge. This devaluation of the teaching profession means that the common citizens increasingly have an ambivalent position about school and teachers: on the one hand, they arrogate to be master of the knowledge and to know about the best pedagogical practices, discrediting the school; on the other, they demand from the school education of their children in scientific aspects, but also psychological accompaniment, and that teachers and educators keep the pupils in school for as long as possible, in order for them to be able to work until later. If it is true that parents are not directly to blame for their working hours, teachers and school cannot be assigned all the roles for the convenience of the parents. 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