Education and social change in times of revolutionary transition (1974-1976)

CeiED / HISTEDUP
Lusófona University
José Araújo Auditorium
Lisbon April 29-30, 2024

Program (.pdf) [PT]

Colloquium presentation

The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution. An event that was not only remarkable for the Portuguese people, as it put an end to 48 years of Dictatorship, but with global implications, as it became the epicenter of the genesis of a third wave of democratization that substantially altered the world political map. "The third wave of democratization in the modern world began, implausibly and unintentionally, at twenty-five minutes after midnight on Thursday, April 25, 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, when a radio station played the song Grândola Vila Morena”, wrote the American political scientist Samuel Huntington in his famous work The Third Wave, Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (1991).

The Portuguese Revolution began as a coup d'état led by young officers organized in the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), who saw no way out of a war fought in the African colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. But it quickly turned into a social revolution, the result of an alliance between the People and the MFA, building what Robert Fishman (2019) calls a "post-revolutionary democracy", which had as its differentiating - and transgressive - element a radically democratic practice. in relation to other subsequent democratic transition processes.

If, on a global level, the rupture that began on April 25, 1974 paved the way for the 'third wave' of democratization in the modern world, on a national level it meant overcoming the double crisis of legitimation and hegemony that Portuguese society had been experiencing since the 1960s. The social mobilization made possible by the Revolution led to giant steps being taken in the affirmation of citizenship rights. This fact resulted in the construction of a Welfare State which, although incipient when compared to that of the states of northern and central Europe, changed the social condition of the Portuguese.

In the field of education policies, the Revolution enabled a new centrality for educational issues, remobilizing aspirations for access to different levels of education, amplified by Veiga Simão's meritocratic discourse in the early 1970s, and opening new fronts in the plans of education. participation in school management and the reformulation of educational structures and content. In the period of revolutionary crisis, in addition to being the scene of heated political struggles, education became a privileged terrain for the legitimization of the new democratic situation, seeking to show (not just at the level of discourse) a radical change compared to previous obscurantist policies of the Estado Novo. If, in the first moments after the military movement, the idea was to continue the 'educational reform' outlined by Veiga Simão in the last government of the dictatorship (1971-1974), it would not be long before steps were taken towards trying to develop a program that , in the field of education, responded to the objective, then widely consensual in political discourse, of building 'a society on the path to socialism', to use the expression enshrined in the first Constitution of the Republic, of April 1976.

Alberto Melo, in a 1979 text, summed up the revolutionary process well: "Portugal then experienced one of those periods that are so rare in the life of all societies, a period in which everything seems possible and within everyone's reach. Fascism - which seemed to be the height of impossibility - everything else became achievable and everyone hurried to solve once and for all the traditional sufferings of the Portuguese population".

It is in this context that the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Education and Development (CeiED), at Universidade Lusófona, and the Association for the History of Education of Portugal (HISTEDUP) organize the Colloquium The utopias of the April revolution. Education and social change in times of revolutionary transition (1974-1976). The topics under discussion will be, among others possible, the following:

• The celebration of Freedom: memories of a unique time
• Early childhood education and social movements. The training of popular educators
• The reform of Primary Teaching Schools
• The democratic management of schools: experiences and conflicts
• The University at the service of the 'working classes: student civic service and debates (and experiences) on the role of higher education
• The teachers' union movement. The affirmation of teachers as key actors in education policies
• From school segregation to educational inclusion: the CERCI movement of parents and educators
• Popular Education Experiences. Literacy campaigns
• School sport
• The colonial legacy in curricula and school manuals
• Portugal seen from the outside: international organizations (UNESCO and OECD) and the Revolution

Program

April 29th, Monday

10.00: Reception of participants

11.00: Opening Session
Antonio Teodoro, Director of CeiED, Universidade Lusófona
Carla Vilhena, President of HISTEDUP, University of Algarve
José Bragança Miranda, Rector of the Lusófona University

11.30: Opening Conferences
Revolution, counter-revolution and memory. António de Spinola, a (false) enigma
Francisco Bairrão Ruivo,Institute of Contemporary History, New University of Lisbon

13.00: Lunch break

14.30: Round table 1
'The schools take to the streets and the streets go to the schools'. Roadmap for pedagogical innovations
Methodological indications: Interrogations, abandonments, continuities.
Raquel Pereira Henriques,Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

"Managing the school on the move": "Pedagogical experiences" in primary teaching schools
Luis Mota,Higher School of Education, Polytechnic of Coimbra
António Gomes Ferreira,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra
Carla Vilhena,University of Algarve

Rui Grácio: Pioneer of pedagogical innovation in the Transition and Revolution
Joaquim Pintassilgo,Institute of Education, University of Lisbon
Moderator: Justino Magalhães, Institute of Education, University of Lisbon

16.00: Coffee break

16.30: Round table 2
Power to teachers and schools: unionism, democratic management and teaching identities
Power to schools... and to (young) teachers! Trade unionism and democratic management in the revolutionary transition
António Teodoro,Lusófona University

The self-managed essay 1974-1976
Licínio C. Lima,Minho's university

Teachers and educational transformation: the doors that April opened
Amelia Lopes,University of Porto
Moderator: Ana Patrícia Almeida,Open University

18.00: Closing of work on the 1st day

April 30th, Tuesday

09.30: Comunicações

Ideias e práticas revolucionárias na educação popular a partir do Porto
Inês Viera (CeiED, Universidade Lusófona)

A experiência da alfabetizadora que aprendeu ao ensinar – um relato na primeira pessoa
Ana Paula Silva (CeiED, Universidade Lusófona)

Do Ensino Especial à Educação Inclusiva: memórias de um percurso
Maria Odete Emygdio da Silva (CeiED, Universidade Lusófona)

La recepción del 25 de abril en los Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica de España (1974-1985)
José María Hernández Díaz (Universidad de Salamanca)

“Da próxima vez não vás…sem deixar destino ou direcção”… - A gestão democrática das escolas: experiências e conflitos
João Manuel Almeida Estanqueiro (Universidade do Minho) andVirgínio Isidro Martins De Sá (Universidade do Minho)

11.00: Coffee break

11.30: Round table 2
Democratization and Sports Culture
The challenges of memory
José Baeta Sequeira da Silva,Physical education teacher

Notes on April 25, 1974 in Sports
Manuel Brito, President of the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority

What to do and how to do it
Jorge Proença,Lusófona University
Moderator: José V. Brás, Lusófona University

13.00: Lunch break

14.30: Round table 3
Popular power and emancipation. Student participation in literacy movements
Maria João Mogarro,Institute of Education, University of Lisbon
Pierre Marie,Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra
Luísa Tiago Oliveira,ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon

Moderator: Teresa Teixeira Lopo, Lusófona University

16.00: Coffee break

16.30: 50 years later, was it worth it?
A conversation with Colonel Vasco Lourenço
Member of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) and the Revolution Council. President of the Board of Directors of the 25 de Abril Association

17.30: Closing of work

António Teodoro, CeiED

Dates for submission of works

The Colloquium allows two types of contributions: individual communications and posters.

Individual communication and panel proposals must be submitted online, on the Event3 platform, by April 15, 2024. Proposals must focus on research work and fit into at least one of the Colloquium topics.

Proposals must contain a title, an abstract and three keywords. Abstracts must contain up to 2500 characters (including spaces). Each researcher may appear as an author in a maximum of 3 communications.

You can submit communications,here!

Registrations

• Participants with communication: 50 EUR
• HISTEDUP members and CeiED researchers with communication: 30 EUR
• CeiED Integrated Researchers with communication: free
• Participants without communication: 20 EUR
• HISTEDUP members and students and teachers from the Lusófona Group without communication: Free

You can sign up, here!

Organizing committee

• Alcina Manuela O. Martins,CeiED, Lusófona University
• António Teodoro,CeiED, Lusófona University
• Ernesto Candeias Martins,CeiED, Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute
• João Filipe Matos,CeiED, Lusófona University
• Joaquim Pintassilgo,HISTEDUP, University of Lisbon
• José V. Brás,CeiED, Lusófona University
• Maria Neves Gonçalves,CeiED, Polytechnic Institute of Lusofonia
• Mário C. Moutinho, CeiED, Lusófona University
• Raquel Pereira Henriques,HISTEDUP, New University of Lisbon
• Teresa Teixeira Lopo,CeiED-Op.Edu, Lusófona University

Secretariat

• Isabela Bertho
• Pedro Fialho