Abstract:

The teaching profession in English Linguistic Education with Children (ELIEC) in Brazil and Portugal encounters multiple complex difficulties. The educational environment needs changes because society has become more diverse while technology brings new educational methods and pupils show unique characteristics. This research emerges from the recognition that teachers in both countries encounter similar educational obstacles because they need specialized approaches for teaching young pupils and supporting children with disabilities. The field needs urgent intervention to create new collaborative methods which unite reflective practices with transdisciplinary approaches for enhancing language education in diverse educational settings.

Two focus groups were established and operated as data collection points which simultaneously brought together teachers from across both countries, Brazil and Portugal, for productive dialogue on studying how they create curricula, modify strategies and create resources. The participants were asked to present their classroom activities and teaching strategies and resources which they considered effective or ineffective. The researchers recorded all discussions before converting them into written text for qualitative analysis. The researchers used interpretive analysis to study selected discussion excerpts together with classroom activity documentation through transdisciplinary theoretical frameworks.

The participants in the focus groups showed agreement about the main points even though they operated in different settings, namely:
a) Teachers across both nations struggled to discover effective teaching approaches for English education of pre-school students who required additional support because of their learning disabilities and developmental issues;
b) They pointed out that educational policies exist in separate silos from teacher training programs and actual classroom practice;
c) The educational requirements of the curriculum seemed to conflict with the emotional and intellectual requirements of children;
d) Teachers experienced loneliness when developing educational materials from scratch or updating existing materials which demonstrates their need for professional networks and collaborative workspaces;
e) Participants also agreed that English teaching at the primary level requires more than language skills because it needs to develop creativity and critical thinking abilities.

In this context, the focus groups served as dual research tools and development areas for participants to inform effective transdisciplinary activities proposals, which would later be created and testes, based on the dialogue established by all participants. Most discussed activities merged storytelling with artistic elements, physical expression and technological tools to demonstrate how teachers can establish innovative learning spaces by linking different subjects through experimental educational approaches.

The main results show that transdisciplinary methods may serve as a transformative power which advances educational progress. Brasilian and Portuguese teachers recognized their shared teaching difficulties when creating innovative methods to enhance their instructional methods, while the educational systems need to create borderless and interdisciplinary programs which support teachers during their adaptation to modern childhood complexities and societal changes.

Keywords:

Transdisciplinarity, Primary English, Reflection, Transformative Approaches, Comparative Study.