Curriculum Theory and Development

Professor Jorge Ramos do Ó
Professor Luís Tinoca

The doctoral course in Curriculum Theory and Development is oriented towards the analysis of the educational phenomenon, based on a theoretical and methodological matrix that privileges the approach of knowledge issues, actors and educational situations. The specificity of the curricular field, as an instrument of schooling, results from its direct connection with the practices and with the political, social and cultural contexts on which the entire educational system is founded and objectified. For this reason, the course takes on an explicit interdisciplinary dimension, in which the link to the sciences of education – which encompasses and is expressed in studies on the curriculum – also integrates the methodologies present in other disciplines of the social sciences and humanities.

The main objective of the course is to develop and deepen analysis tools that allow expanding the frontiers of educational knowledge with regard to both the foundation, theorization and justification, as well as the elaboration, planning, operationalization and evaluation in terms of curriculum, didactic decision and pedagogical innovation. The term curriculum refers to the organization of the schooling experience as a block and, thus, its study will always directly concern the multiplicity of processes in which education is problematized from the relationship between theory and practice.

Topics that may be considered in research work in this specialty include: curriculum reforms; curriculum decision contexts; curriculum assessment practices; professional development models and practices; construction of the trainers’ identity and professionalism; formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts; and experiences of curriculum innovation at different levels of education, including higher education.

Holders of a Master’s degree or legal equivalent;

Exceptionally, holders of a Bachelor’s degree or legal equivalent, if they have a particularly relevant academic or scientific curriculum that is recognised by the Scientific Council of the Instituto de Educação as attesting their capacity to carry out doctoral studies.

The main way to enter the doctorate is by applying for an open tender for a Doctoral Programme according to the field and specialty, with the indication of the number of places available. This invitation to tender will be advertised through a public notice and is subject to compliance with specific rules and forms.

In the doctoral areas where there is no call for tender, candidates must send an application to the Scientific Council of the Instituto de Educação of the Universidade de Lisboa, formalizing their candidacy. Only in exceptional and duly justified cases may an individual candidacy enter the doctorate in a specialty area in years when an open tender took place.