Ana Benavente


Biographical note

Ana Benavente has done all her academic training in Switzerland and she is a PhD in Education Sciences from the University of Geneva since 1985. She is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon in the area of ​​Education, after several years linked to the training of teachers at the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon. She retired in 2009.

She conducted research-action projects and several studies on school exclusion and coordinated the first National Literacy Study. Vice-President (elected by Europe) from the BIE General Council, UNESCO, Genève (2001-2005). Member of the OECD Committee for the CERI (Center pour la recherche et l’innovation) (1996-2002). Deputy of the Assembly of the Republic (1995-2005). She was Secretary of State for Education (1995-2001), in the XIII and XIV constitutional governments. Member of the Board of Trustees of ISCTE-IUL, election homologated in June 2018. Member of the External Advisory Council of CIES / ISCTE-IUL, since 2018.

Government representative with international agencies in Europe, Africa, America, Australia and Japan. With a vast work published and hundreds of participations in Colloquiums, Conferences and Congresses, national and international. Currently, she pursues international consulting activities and is a professor at the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies, in master’s and doctoral courses.

Areas of academic and scientific interest

  • Public policies
  • Political dialogue
  • Social inequalities in school
  • Quality of teaching and learning
  • Educational innovation and institutional re-construction
  • Role of the school in the fight against poverty
  • Initial and continuing teacher training
  • Evaluation of policies