New Perspectives in Science Education

Presently we are experiencing the globalization of development [1; 2]. In the past years more and more higher education institutions (HEis) from developed countries have been collaborating with institutions from less advanced states, by ministering specific training programs, particularly for pre or in service teachers. However the knowledge that derives from this type of experiences is still rare and disperse [6]. The few existent studies involving HEis report cases from Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand and United States [7;8;9]. On what concerns to Portugal there is also a lack of systematized knowledge [10], despite its long tradition of cooperating with the Portuguese-speaking African countries – PALOP (namely, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe) and also with East – Timor. The Portuguese presence in Africa and the East can be traced back to the ‘age of discovery’ (15^th ~18^th century) [11], and has allowed the creation of an overseas cultural community sustained by the possibility of communicating in the same language (Portuguese).

The need of further investment in the quality of global education is stated in the target 4.c of the recently approved Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs [3]. Since science education is considered to be crucial towards the progress of societies [4; 5] it is important to look closer at the global scenario of the transnational science teacher training program.

Within this backdrop this work aims to describe and discuss the characteristics of science teacher training programs involving protocols between Portuguese public HEIs (universities and polytechnic schools) and public institutions of Africa and 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. The data base that is being created includes variables such as scientific area (Biology; Chemistry; Geography; Geology, Mathematics and Physics), level of instruction (graduation; post-graduation - master or doctoral level; and also in service teacher training programs); number of teachers involved; duration of the training program and also the specification of the teaching strategies/resources that were used during the program.  From this data base a group of at least four HEIs will be selected, in order to constitute a multi case follow up research.

It is believed that the obtained output, namely the characterization of the global scenario considering cooperation of Portugal with the PALOP countries and East –Timor in science education, constitutes a crucial milestone towards improving the quality of education at global level, since it may serve as a primer for further reflection on the major strengths and challenges of transnational science education.