Conceição Silva, professor and researcher at CEGE - Center for Studies in Management and Economics at Católica Porto Business School, was part of a team of researchers that developed a national study in a school environment. On the side of the Portuguese Catholic University, this project also included Luísa Mota Ribeiro and Rosário Serrão from the Faculty of Education and Psychology and Margarida Gaspar de Matos from the Faculty of Human Sciences.

The work “Well-being in Portuguese schools” focused on how Portuguese students and teachers self-assess their happiness, and the results were presented on November 21st at the Lisbon Oceanarium. The session, led by psychologist Eduardo Sá, was attended by Conceição Silva and Margarida Gaspar de Matos, and Helena Águeda Marujo from the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lisbon.

In Conceição Silva's opinion, “one of the most important results of the study is the preponderance of teachers' acceptance and interest in the well-being of students and the fact that this relationship goes both ways”. In other words, the teacher explains, “the acceptance and interest of the students themselves in relation to what is taught to them ends up being decisive in the well-being of the teachers”.

The study, which involved the participation of more than five thousand teachers and three thousand students, also demonstrated that students' happiness is related to three factors: family, colleagues and teachers. “This takes us to a very human dimension of the act of teaching, where the role of the teacher and his relationship with each student are, in fact, the main thing”, maintains Conceição Silva. For the professor at Católica Porto Business School, the conclusions showed the human side of teachers, “who give their students and their interest in them a meaning for their own existence”.

The study “Well-being in Portuguese schools” was developed by teachers and researchers from the Católica Porto Business School, the Faculty of Education and Psychology and the Faculty of Human Sciences, the Catholic University of Portugal, the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences and from the Institute of Environmental Health of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, and also by employees of the Aventura Social team, in partnership with the Escola Amiga da Criança project and with the support of Environment Global Facilities (EGF).