Paula Guimarães

University of Lisbon | UL · Institute of Education

The role of international governmental organisations (IGOs) in global policymaking has received significant attention in the field of adult learning and education (ALE) in the twenty-first century, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was recognised as one of the most influential IGO due to its skill surveys-such as...

Digital education has become an important issue in the European Union's (EU) policy agenda as new demands are made on skills, employability, and citizenship, calling for the urgency of digital transformation and posing new policy challenges for EU member states in adult learning and education (ALE) (Schmidt-Lauff & Dust, 2020). To analyse the polit...

Since 2009, UNESCO has published Global Reports on Adult Learning and Education (GRALEs), integrating an analysis of member-states' reported national data, policies and best practices. These reports focus on five action areas adopted in the Belém Framework for Action (policy, governance, financing, participation and quality), constructing adult lea...

This article discusses the scientific debate that has been held in the International Journal of Lifelong Education (IJLE) over the past four decades concerning intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and adult learning and education (ALE) policies. Drawing upon a field-analytical perspective comprising the political and scientific fields, this discu...

This thematic issue of Sisyphus aims at contributing to understanding diversity, fragmentation and complexity of comparison in adult education research, focussing on policy and practices developed in different parts of the world. The articles to be include in this issue are the outcome of the vivid discussion held in the INTALL Adult Education Acad...

RESUMO O texto problematiza o insucesso escolar numa perspectiva de género, a partir da perceção de alunos dos ensinos básico e secundário em Portugal. A análise resulta de uma investigação cujos dados empíricos foram recolhidos por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e de grupos focais. As estatísticas oficiais revelam uma taxa de insucesso escol...

Este livro pretende constituir-se como um contributo para dilucidar criticamente a educação permanente, inquirindo sobre a sua atualidade e admitindo-a abertamente. Mas o reconhecimento da pertinência de uma educação permanente nos nossos dias exige a procura de revisitações críticas que claramente admitam não existir um consenso sobre a sua defini...

Neste texto argumenta-se sobre a articulação entre as modalidades de educação formal, não formal e informal, sendo que esta relação se torna coerente nas biografias de sujeitos inscritas em contextos históricos específicos. Relaciona-se esta articulação com a necessária ligação entre a auto, hetero e ecoformação, quando se discutem aprendizagens de...

A pandemia vivida em Portugal e no mundo após março de 2020 mostrou às entidades de educação de adultos a relevância de atividades de educação digital, assim como a importância de adaptar os métodos de trabalho usados nos últimos anos às circunstâncias do desenvolvimento de iniciativas educativas online. Apesar da relevância que o uso das tecnologi...

In this article, we examine the vertical influence of the European Union (EU) policy on recognition of prior learning (RPL) in one Southern European country (Portugal) and in a Central European one (Slovenia). We stress the influence of the EU policy on adult education (AE) policies and the development of RPL granting professional qualification. Al...

This article aims to analyse teachers’ perceptions of school failure and dropout through a gender perspective in the Portuguese context. The statistical data show that, in most OECD countries, the rates of school failure and dropout are higher for boys than for girls. In Portugal, the difference in the school failure and dropout rates for boys and...

The article compares discourses of the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of Poland, Portugal and Slovenia concerning the role of adult learning and education for sustainable development. NECPs are analysed through a theoretical proposal based on Escobar's (2005) and Krause's (2010) contributions, establishing three approaches to development...

Desde a II Guerra Mundial, as organizações internacionais passaram a ter um papel importante na formulação e desenvolvimento das políticas educativas, nomeadamente daquelas dirigidas a adultos. De entre estas organizações internacionais, desde a sua criação, a União Europeia produziu diversos documentos políticos que se repercutiram no desenvolvime...

Desde a II Guerra Mundial, as organizações internacionais passaram a ter um papel importante na formulação e desenvolvimento das políticas educativas, nomeadamente daquelas dirigidas a adultos. De entre estas organizações internacionais, desde a sua criação, a União Europeia produziu diversos documentos políticos que se repercutiram no desenvolvime...

A educação de adultos apresenta-se como um domínio científico simultaneamente complexo e heterogêneo. Não possuindo uma delimitação claramente definida, constitui um campo híbrido. Ao contemplar contributos teóricos de outras ciências sociais, assume-se também como uma subdisciplina. Apesar desta circunstância, enquanto domínio do conhecimento cien...

This volume gives theoretical and practical insights in international and comparative research in the field of adult and continuing education. The 16 contributions of this volume give three perspectives on international and comparative adult education. The first perspective focuses on the question how internationalisation and comparative adult and...

Este manual traduz o resultado do projeto transnacional "Stepping Up to Technology in Adult Education” (StepUp2ICT). Pretende apoiar os educadores de adultos na utilização de ferramentas TIC, meios e recursos digitais no âmbito da sua atividade profissional e pedagógica.

This handbook is the result of the “Stepping Up to Technology in Adult Education towards Awareness, Assessment and Access” transnational project (Erasmus+). It is meant to support adult educators in using ICT tools and digital media in their working framework.

This article discusses adult education policies in Greece and Portugal according to the model proposed by Lima and Guimarães (2011), which encompasses three analytical perspectives on adult learning and education. After the introduction, the methodological path followed is presented based on the document analysis of Greek and Portuguese national re...

Este manual es el resultado del proyecto transnacional «Steppping Up to Technology in Adult Education towards Awareness, Assessment and Access» creado para apoyar a los educadores de adultos en el uso de las herramientas TIC y los medios digitales en el desempeño de su trabajo.

RESUMO Este artigo aborda as políticas públicas de educação de adultos em Portugal desde 1974, a partir de três lógicas: a lógica democrática-emancipatória; a de modernização e de controlo estatal; e a lógica da gestão de recursos humanos. Essas lógicas são tratadas em articulação com os desenvolvimentos e as principais características das política...

The article first discusses the aims of lifelong learning proposed by the European Union and then analyses the reinterpretations present in the Portuguese policies of adult education in the last two decades. Finally, the influence of the European Union on policy discourses in Portugal is stressed, with increasing attention paid to the usefulness of...

This paper focuses on three Southern European countries, Italy, Portugal and Spain, to explore examples of projects that provide signposts for a critical popular education that contributes to an ongoing democratic process – one whereby citizens are developed as social actors and members of a collectivity rather than simply passive producers/consume...

This volume places the development of the Joint Module “Comparative Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning” (COMPALL, ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership) in the context of international development in higher education and adult education. Based on this framework, the authors discuss the development of the joint module in terms of its institut...

This paper places the development of the Joint Module ‘Comparative Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning’ (COMPALL) in the context of international developments in higher education and in adult education. Based on this framework, the development of the joint module is reflected regarding its institutional and didactical structure as well...

In Portugal, the debate on the elderly and ageing has followed the lines of the most expressive international discussions, although it is still only being approached by a rather minimal number of national researchers. When considering social and educational policies studies, this debate has been centred on the short role of the State, namely in ter...

This paper focuses on recognition of prior learning as part of a national policy based on European Union guidelines for lifelong learning, and it explains how recognition of prior learning has been perceived since it was implemented in Portugal in 2000. Data discussed are the result of a mixed method research project that surveyed adult learners, s...

Neste artigo, procura-se discutir sentidos dominantes nos últimos anos nas políticas públicas de educação de adultos em Portugal. Para tal, num primeiro momento, esclarece-se as finalidades contidas nas orientações da União Europeia para a aprendizagem ao longo da vida. Num segundo, abordam-se as reinterpretações efetuadas nas políticas públicas na...

title>RESUMO: Neste artigo leva-se a cabo uma breve análise da nova política pública de educação de adultos adotada em Portugal após 1999. Esta discussão baseia-se em elementos de cariz político e educativo, em particular nos perfis dos educadores de adultos, de acordo com três modelos de políticas públicas. O artigo inclui a análise de dados empí...

Exploring the development of educational provision and contemporary issues, this book covers the countries that made up the European Union from its foundation to the signing of the Treaty of Nice: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands. The chapters, writt...

Positive educational discrimination measures arose as a way to overcome the effects produced by the meritocratic principle of equal access opportunities, but not of equal success opportunities. Education and Training Courses launched in 2002 school year in Portugal are an example of this kind of educational policy measures. They aim at fighting sch...

This paper discusses the social representation and the teacher identity in Education and Training Course, one of the most discredit and stigmatized educational provision in Portugal which aims to combat school failure and dropout. For this purpose we interviewed 10 teachers of Education and Training Courses on three public schools in Lisbon. The fi...

This chapter focuses on the ways by which EU lifelong learning agenda, specifically the guidelines for basic skills, has been interpreted according to the Portuguese realities, at national and local levels. We suggest that basic skills for all, as intended in the framework of the European area of lifelong learning, have somewhat loose roots on the...

The concepts of competences and employability have been oftenly used in educational policy discourses. They have been based on a category, the employable learner both in the European Union and Portugal. This paper set out to discuss how is the adult learner constructed within adult education and training policy, that is, under two programmes launch...

Education and Training Courses for young people have assumed great relevance in the Portuguese education system. Aimed at fighting school failure and dropout these courses fall within the compensatory education framework policies. Based on interviews, an analysis of the students attending Education and Training Courses, school pathways, experiences...

Both the Portuguese appropriation of the lifelong learning policy proposed by the European Union since the mid-1990s and the definition of adult education policy in Portugal were based on a discourse that emphasised an ‘unacceptable educational deficit’ for democracy. The role of the State in the governance of the public provision of adult educatio...

The relationship between adult education and development, with development considered in its different understandings, has always been central in research and policy debates. In a strict sense, this relationship has focused on economic growth and the relevance of adult education for the promotion of human capital; however in a wider sense, this rel...

In recent times, adult education has witnessed an increasing number of activities aimed at older adults (Findsen & Formosa, 2011). From social and cultural programmes, to literacy and local development projects, older adult education has become a major issue in policy making.

This article analyses Portugal’s adult education policy between 1999 and 2010. Our empirical material consists of Portuguese as well as supranational policy documents. We use a theoretical framework which distinguishes three models of public policy, with different views on the roles of public policy and of education: (1) participative policy/emanci...

The third sector has an important role in the promotion of adult education, training and learning as well as in social change in local communities that have been progressively excluded from hegemonic processes of economic development. However, many non-governmental organisations have adopted mediation strategies between the State and local communit...

The process of Recognition and Accreditation of Prior Learning (RAPL) is being consideredone of the most important devices for the qualification of adults in Portugal.This process, that takes place in education centres called New Opportunities Centres,institutes literacy as a nuclear axis of its development: on one hand, the recognition andvalidati...

This paper is a reflection on recent Portuguese policy on adult education. It explores the policy discussion at the national level from1999 and in particular after 2005, when the New Opportunities Initiative (Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades in Portuguese) was adopted and European Union (EU) guidelines were given considerable emphasis. The first sect...

In this article the main subject of analysis is the adult education and training policy. This policy marked a rupture towards the previous second-chance education policy and it was the result of the adoption of the programmes S@ ber+. Programa para Desenvolvimento e Expansão da Educação e Formação de Adultos (Knowing+. Programme for the development...

In this article the main subject of analysis is the adult education and training policy. This policy marked a rupture towards the previous second-chance education policy and it was the result of the adoption of the programmes S@ber+. Programa para Desenvolvimento e Expansão da Educação e Formação de Adultos (Knowing+. Programme for the development...

The consolidation of the welfare state in Europe after World War II allowed for the development of adult education programmes aimed at social inclusion, economic growth and democratic citizenship. Lifelong education, proposed by UNESCO (1970s), allowed countries to build adult education policies combining the needs of economic growth and increasing...

The discussion held in this paper is the result of several researches made by the author recently on adult education public policies as well as of her participation in the Adult Learning Practitioners in Europe (ALPINE) project (2007-2008) coordinated by Research voor Beleid (The Netherlands) and funded by the European Commission. The analysis pres...

Debido al carácter discontinuo y fragmentado de las políticas de educación de adultos en Portugal, desde 1974 hasta la actualidad, se registró la emersión de diferentes perfiles, lo que impidió el reconocimiento social de los profesionales. Sin embargo, desde 1999, en el ámbito de la adopción de la política pública de educación y formación de adult...

The consolidation of the welfare state in Europe after World War II allowed for the development of adult education programmes aimed at social inclusion, economic growth and democratic citizenship. Lifelong education, proposed by UNESCO (1970s), allowed countries to build adult education policies combining the needs of economic growth and increasing...

The discussion in this article is based on recent research carried out by the author recently on adult education public policies and her participation in the Adult Learning Practitioners in Europe (ALPINE) project coordinated by Research voor Beleid (The Netherlands) and funded by the European Commission. The analysis presented here stresses the ch...

O campo da educação enfrenta na actualidade importantes desafios que têm levado ao surgimento de tensões e dilemas que forçam a sua reconfiguração. Neste âmbito, a formação de educadores de adultos também se confronta com diversos problemas, com destaque para aqueles induzidos pela prevalência de determinados modos de conceber e entender a formação...

In contemporary times the adult education field faces relevant shifts leading to the emergence of tensions and dilemmas that force its reconfiguration. Therefore, several problems rise in what adult educators' training is concerned, mainly these induced by the prevalence of certain forms of training. Searching for innovative ways of conceiving and...

When we started the research project Learning in the Workplace, we spent long hours in a hospital ward during the three last months of 1997. This situation led us to experience the space-time duality that influenced professional action in that organisation. In this paper we intend to approach the importance of these two categories in a ward, especi...