Resumen

FELDEN, Eliane de Lourdes. Teacher professional development: challenges and tensions in higher education through the perspective of the heads of department. R. Bras. Est. Pedag. [online]. 2017, vol.98, n.250, pp.747-763. ISSN 2176-6681.  https://doi.org/10.24109/2176-6681.rbep.98i250.2858.

This research focuses on teacher professional development through an inquiry in the field of university pedagogy. It stems from a research on higher education teaching, substantiated by contemporary authors that traditionally investigate this level of education. This paper constitutes a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews with heads of department who double as university professors, aiming to learn the challenges and tensions faced in the betterment of higher education teaching. It is inferable that this improvement entails continuing professional-training investment in an effort to overcome experienced challenges and tensions. There is an understanding that the articulated work of the university and its professors can spark needed ruptures in the teaching/learning process, in the perspective of improving teaching in the university.

Palabras clave : higher education; university teaching; teacher professional development.

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