Abstract:

The study we report here aims not only to find out the perception of Portuguese higher education teachers about the adaptation processes adopted by national institutions to meet the challenges posed by the Bologna Reform, but also their opinion on the effects generated by the reforms undertaken. From a theoretical point of view, we made use of neo-institutionalism and the theory of practical action which emphasizes a cognitive perspective of professional action from an affective and evaluative perspective, considering the influence of normative schemes and pre-conscious processes that are transformed into routine behavior, internalized, and rebound into practical action. The research placed teachers' perceptions and opinions at the centre of its empirical dimension, making use of an essentially descriptive approach, typical of the evaluative studies which are conducted on implementing transformative processes, and of comparative studies of contexts liable to these processes. Therefore, the methodological design ensured the representativeness of the higher education subsystems in the sample set, and the quota sample comprised 381 Portuguese higher education teachers. To gather data, a questionnaire survey was used, which was sent to all higher education institutions and various national bodies, using Google technology. The data analysis and the statistical treatment of the data collected was possible due to IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 21.0, using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results suggest the objectives aimed at with the Bologna Reform were only partially achieved, especially those referring to the development of students' professional and research skills, linked to the degree structure and the Bologna curricular reform, which were evaluated by a not insignificant number of teachers as not being achieved. The comparison of the results according to the sub-systems to which the teachers belong has made it possible to find out that, despite the low explanatory power that the type of education sub-system has on the differences registered in the perceptions built by their teachers around the Bologna Reform, there are statistically relevant differences between the perceptions of the various groups of teachers which suggest that teachers from private sector institutions felt more impact and more change because of the Reform than teachers from public higher education institutions. The results showed that within the private higher education sector, the teachers from the polytechnic institutions were the ones who presented the "strongest" perceptions regarding the scope registered by implementing the various Bologna dimensions, their implementation in the teaching-learning processes and regarding the globally perceived implementation of the Reform.

Keywords:

Bologna Reform, higher education teachers, Portuguese higher education subsystems, national survey.