Investigating Science Education in the context of International Cooperation for Development: the case of the Portuguese public higher education institutions

Abstract

Presently we are experiencing the globalization of development and education. In the past years more and more higher education institutions (HEis) from developed countries have been collaborating with institutions from developing states, by ministering specific training programs for diverse professionals, such as (future) teachers. Within this backdrop the presented research aims to describe the global scenario considering the international cooperation of Portugal by identifying and describing the main characteristics of the protocols involving science and which were established between Portuguese public HEIs and institutions of five African countries as well as East-Timor. Data is being gathered by content analysis of the information available at the official web sites of the Portuguese institutions and also by personal contact with key-informants, whenever it is necessary. Descriptive statistical analysis of the data that has been gathered so far indicates that Portugal has apparently been investing equitably in different knowledge areas. Nearly half of the identified cooperation protocols involve working in science, being mainly in scientific education (and not research). Within this context 26,47% of the protocols correspond to science teacher training programmes, mainly from secondary or pre-secondary level. Finally obtained outputs indicate that Portuguese HEI have been collaborating more intensively with Cape Verde, Mozambique and Angola, and that these collaborations rarely involve only one scientific area per protocol. Even though the research is still in progress, it is believed that it constitutes a crucial milestone towards improving the quality of education at global level, since outputs may serve as a primer for further reflection on the major strengths and challenges of transnational science education. It is aimed that the research findings of the follow up work will contribute to more informed actions considering further investments in global (science) education, like it is aspired by the target 4.C of the recently approved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).