Abstract:

In this communication, we argue for the need to invest in the continuous training of teachers in the area of media and news literacies. Living in a society deeply mediatized (Coulddry & Hepp, 2017), it is essential that formal educational structures follow these significant changes in our society. 20 years after the creation of the Portuguese School Library Network and after the publication of the Media Education Referential and the Learning Referential from the school library, the work that needs to be done is still huge. Having this in mind, we developed an articulated research in time, associated with two research projects ANLite (2014-2017, related to a post-doctoral research conducted in Portugal, in the Great Porto, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) and Media In Action (MIA, 2018, European project with European funding of DG Connect). In this context, and to facilitate the reading of data from both studies, we made a cohort for the Portuguese data from MIA. In both projects was done comprehensive work on media and news education and still the use of digital storytelling, in both studies we worked with teachers (that work with students up to 12 years). In the first case, we collected data from semi-structured interviews and from semi-open questionnaires that were conducted before and after a certified training action with teachers. In the second case, we did semi-open questionnaires before and after the training with teachers.

In this communication, we will consider the following research questions: How do teachers perceive the importance of education for media and news in school? How do you work in the school context? What constraints do you find in the day-to-day work? In this reading, we will also consider the connection of this questioning with the recently introduced "profile of students at the end of compulsory schooling" in Portugal.

The preliminary results point to an ambivalence between considering that this knowledge is fundamental to live in society, to succeed and work, as well as to show the willingness to use it in the classes and, finally, the self-assessment (excessively) negative of teachers capacities to guide students and themselves in these innovative learning processes (in the school context).

Keywords:

Teacher Training, Education for Media and news literacies, Communication technology.