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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 11
Publication Date: November 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.811.11211. Moura, A., & Pestana, A. (2021). Hand in Hand with Timor: Exchange Project Between Viana do Castelo Polytechnic and the
Portuguese School of Dili – Celp – Ruy Cinatti. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(11). 220-230.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Hand in Hand with Timor: Exchange Project Between Viana do
Castelo Polytechnic and the Portuguese School of Dili – Celp – Ruy
Cinatti
Anabela Moura
Escola Superior de Educação-IPVC, Portugal
Assunção Pestana
Minho University, CIEC, PORTUGAL
ABSTRACT
Hand in hand with Timor (De mãos dadas com Timor) is a project that explores
cultural competencies, social interaction through the Arts and Communication
which has promoted cognitive development and a systematic contact between
participants from very diverse cultural contexts (Portuguese students in two
classes of the 1st year Basic Education Teacher Training BA Degree at the Higher
School of Education of Viana do Castelo Polytechnic [ESEVC-IPVC], attending the
subject entitled Theories and Practices of Visual and Performing Arts, and Timor
children, teachers and educators working in the Pre-School level of Education at the
Portuguese School of Dili - CELP - Ruy Cinatti, Timor). This international exchange
arose from contacts made between the teacher of Visual Arts at ESEVC-IPVC and Flor
Gomes, former student of ESEVC-IPVC, with a BA degree in Visual and Technological
Education and a Master in Art Education at ESEVC-IPVC, teacher in statutory
mobility, currently working in Timor between 2020 and 2022. This article, written
by two researchers from the Art Education area, addresses a Portuguese project
which emphasised an action-research underpinned in an interdisciplinary
approach, using comics as teaching strategy in developing cultural competencies of
eighty Portuguese students (no=80) of a Basic Education Course. The findings of
such collaboration using video as the communication support for this international
exchange, show the positive effects of such Project that promoted the overall
cultural and artistic competencies of students involved, either in Portugal or in
Timor. It is concluded that such curricular experiment had on students, on their
motivation and awareness of how illustration and video can work together with
popular literature, staging and illustrating it. It also highlights how imagination,
creativity, dialogue and cultural competencies of children can promote a deeply
collaborative work at local, regional, national and international levels, despite the
fact that we are living in a period of pandemic and confinement.
Keyword: Heritage Education; Multicultural Art Education; International Exchange;
Social interaction; Cultural Competencies
INTRODUCTION
Like other European countries, Portugal is becoming highly multiracial. It is an evident fact that
many of the non-European students and children of immigrants are marginalized and have not
been successful in our education system. During the past 40 years, many other European
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Moura, A., & Pestana, A. (2021). Hand in Hand with Timor: Exchange Project Between Viana do Castelo Polytechnic and the Portuguese School of
Dili – Celp – Ruy Cinatti. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(11). 220-230.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.811.11211
countries have been developing educational policies and practices, with the aim of increasing
equal opportunities for members of ethnic minorities and developing awareness of cultural
diversity. Curricular trends that favour uniformity and homogenization need to be corrected.
Portuguese art educators feel the permanent need to study educational reform strategies, and
critically assess their suitability for their own contexts. The investigations carried out by
students and teachers, in the last three decades, on curricular guidelines, in Portugal and other
countries, were important, because they addressed theories and practices of inter /
multicultural education that work as tools for the analysis of empirical work and educational
practice, in terms of reducing prejudices in terms of education in general and artistic education,
in particular, and allowed the clarification of existing concepts.
Training for the audiovisual (Bazalgette, 1991) has been considered equally fundamental,
relating to the critical understanding of the various media (television, video, etc.), valuing issues
related to its functioning in terms of the production of meanings, their organization and the
audiences that give them meaning. From the historical analysis of literature, so-called erudite
art, as well as mass art, or popular art, made by men or women, is worthy of a place in any
cultural manifestation. So, any cultural manifestation needs to be more thoroughly examined,
explored and interpreted, in order to reduce prejudices and stereotypes. We have to face these
issues because we have to accept that creating art is an increasingly interventionist activity,
which needs to be read and interpreted critically.
Heritage education has been considered an important component of the national curriculum
since the democratic revolution, when schools were transformed into places of critical response
to their geographical contexts and surrounding communities. In 1974, education became a
social development tool aimed at developing students' critical thinking and decision-making
skills, preparing them for daily life and developing their personal and social skills (Ministry of
Education, 1975). Regarding the context of the Escola Superior de Educação, of the Polytechnic
Institute of Viana do Castelo (ESE-IPVC), enormous importance has been attached and the
conditions that facilitate the access of students and since the beginning of its operation teachers
have been promoted cultural events and the recognition of cultural heritage, based on
curricular activities and extracurricular initiatives that facilitate the understanding of cultural
values.
How concepts of culture, heritage, legend, human values were introduced at the Higher
Education in a Basic Education course, through art education?
At ESEVC, it has been our constant concern to understand whether and how education in
general, and artistic education in particular, can contribute to improving students’ cultural
skills. This is a controversial issue, which has involved many debates and reflections that aim
to contribute to a greater awareness of teachers and students for the knowledge and
understanding of the role that art occupies in the lives of people and society, as an indispensable
means for understanding the other, and for the interaction between individuals and the world
in which they live. The adoption of reflective and critical pedagogies and new technologies
expand the opportunities for students to explore their multicultural and multi technological
visual worlds, helping them to better understand culture and art as areas of knowledge. On the
other hand, teachers continue to look to the culture all around. Whether it is urban or rural, it
is understood with potential and as a meaningful learning resource, where teaching learning
methods can start from the students’ own living experiences.
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The fact that we are a peripheral zone is no longer felt as an obstacle, as technologies eliminate
distances. Prior research (Moura, 1993) leads us to conclude that the introduction of artistic
appreciation activities in the Portuguese curriculum could help students and teachers to deal
with heritage education and improve students' abilities to observe and understand art and
culture, culture of the past and the present. Language is also an essential tool for exploring
concepts and improving perceptual skills, but art educators have largely neglected this aspect
(Moura, 1993). Learning is a result of the students’ activity in a social and cultural context, but
what place does the local, national and international community have in the students’ cognitive
development?
Even when art educators are engaged in image analysis with their students, the images they use
appear divorced from the country's cultural and social reality and art criticism as it exists in
this country, has developed fundamentally, from the practical teaching experiences, so it was
concluded that the reassessment of artistic education was necessary for inter / multicultural
reasons. It is concluded that the models of the past to develop patrimonial education must be
re-examined since the practice has shown that they do not respond to the present needs to
provide human and professional guidance to young people. They do not facilitate the exchange
of ideas with other regional, national and international contexts, an essential factor to enable
Portugal to learn from its strengths and weaknesses, and to experiment and adapt its resources.
Language is also an essential tool for exploring concepts and improving perceptual skills, but
art educators have largely neglected this aspect (Moura, 1993).
METHODOLOGY
The present educational situation in Portugal suggested the use of qualitative methods, as
quantitative methods of research had not yet reduced the educational problems identified. A
decision was taken in this curriculum intervention that a predominantly qualitative approach
would be more suitable to respond to our need for professional development of our student
teachers, with regard to curriculum innovation. We elected to experiment with a method that
would involve collaborative work with students and teachers on common needs and problems.
It had to be the kind of research method that would contribute, above all, to deeper
understanding of specific competencies and contents, pertaining to culture and heritage.
For the reasons explained here, we opted for a qualitative and democratic approach to data
collection and curriculum development to increase our knowledge and understand about
culture and heritage education. Other reasons for selecting a qualitative method were that is
best suited to in-depth and multifaceted reflection (Kemmis, 1988), enables on-going dialogue,
and formative evaluation of processes (Stenhouse, 1987), and allows corrections to be made in
the course of the research.
Action research was considered more appropriate than other qualitative methods because of
its emphasis on solving educational problems diagnosed in specific situations; also because of
its potential for contributing to our personal and practical knowledge and understanding; and
because it was compatible with our profession as teacher trainers in Higher Education.
Moreover, the analysis of the literature on the topic made it clear that this method sets out to
improve educational practice and that its objects of study are situated in a specific place and
time.