Thesis

The digital mediation as support for participation in the context of teachers' unions - Proposal for a model based on the analysis of e-participation experiences

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Abstract

The 2000s made the Internet the preferred means for communication between citizens. The Youtube, Second Life, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, the social networks in general, and the Web 2.0 were born. The rise of these tools, based on the Web 2.0, enabled the development of new ways of interaction between governments and citizens. Particularly relevant is the electronically mediated interaction between each citizen or groups of citizens and several public, private, or social, organizations, which has led to a new form of participation, known as e-participation. In this context, the aim of the current study is to contribute to a better understanding of the benefits of these collaborative environments by promoting the quality of interaction among participants, i.e., to contribute to the study of e-participation in the organizations, especially in the relationship between teachers’ unions, teachers, and other participants from the civil society. Regarding the Portuguese teachers’ unions, the adoption of information and communication technologies is already a reality. Nevertheless, the application of these technologies is usually limited to the unidirectional spread of information, either via email, SMS or newsletters, or through their Web portals. In other words, the unions still lack in interaction, participation and cooperation. Therefore, we believe it would be useful and desirable to develop a technological solution that promotes a structured participation and a multidirectional communication (synchronous and asynchronous) among the unions, their members and other participants interested in the educational system, in a single, neutral, and regulated place in order to reduce the identified communication gap and strengthen the relationship between these key actors. Accordingly, we propose a platform for digital mediation, based on a conceptual model, and designed to bring together different stakeholders in a deliberative shared space, and the corresponding proof of concept to support the communication between the teachers' unions and the civil society in general. The aforementioned platform is expected to enrich the teachers’ unions’ portals with innovative features, and thus help strengthen the relationship between the unions and the educational community, and promote the participation of all stakeholders in the education process. The proof of concept of the current study, a platform for digital mediation with support for synchronous and asynchronous two-way communication, was properly adapted to the context of the teachers’ unions through ten experiments applied at the National Federation of Teachers (FENPROF) and the Teachers’ Union of the Centre Region (SPRC). These experiments also included the participation of member unions of FENPROF and other teachers’ unions, municipalities’ and companies’ representatives, parents associations, politicians and the civil society. The outcomes of the performed experiments are analysed and discussed considering the proposed model, here named participation sphere, and, in light of these, different suggestions are proposed for the unions to become more dynamic and to turn into connected entities.

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