Crafting a neo-Vygotskian approach to adult education in Portugal: Collaborative project work in an alternative curriculum

Abstract

ContextualizationSince the mid-1970s Portugal has received many citizens from African countries in which Portuguese is the instruction language (PALOP). The presence of chil­dren, teenagers and adults from the PALOP has shaped learning experiences in schools (Cesar, 2009; Cesar & Oliveira, 2005). Curricular and cultural differences between the countries of origin and the hosting country create the need for cultural mediation, adequate practices according to students' characteristics, interests and needs, and the use of inter-empowerment mechanisms (Cesar, 2013a). Regulatory dynamics, particularly between the school and students' families, are also needed (Cesar, 2013b).The 3rd cycle of basic recurrent education with credit units (7th-9th grades) was targeted at adults and was part of the educational system (Ministerio da Educao, 1991). The curriculum was organized by subject and divided into credit units. This educational system was designated as SEUC. Students worked individually on each credit unit and could request an evaluation whenever they wanted. However, this system, sustained on emancipatory theories (Freire, 1921/1985), led to school un­derachievement and dropouts. According to Pinto, Matos, and Rothes (1998), only 5% or fewer concluded the course within the expected time (three years). Thus, the Ministry of Education authorized the creation of curricula conceived by teachers as an alternative to SEUC (Secretaria de Estado da Educao e Inovao, 1996). Cur­ricular innovation happened when teachers committed to inclusion, and working collaboratively, created the conditions for its fulfilment (Cesar & Oliveira, 2005; Courela, 2007; Sebarroja, 2001; Teles, 2011).Theoretical backgroundCulture, curricula, and inclusionIn Portugal, the curriculum was mono-cultural at first, as if every student partici­pated in the mainstream culture. Those from other cultures had to adapt to the mainstream culture in order to access school achievement. Then came the multicul­tural curriculum, in which several cultures coexisted but with no sense of sharing and mutual recognition. In an intercultural curriculum, the sharing of knowledge and solving strategies is assumed, as is the wealth deriving from interaction among cultures (Leite, 2002). When the importance of culture in thinking and perform­ances, in solving strategies and/or in responses was realized, the need for differen­tiated curricula and practices was understood. Teachers should take into account the particularities of each culture, particularly the mother tongue and the symbolic systems (Cesar, 2009, 2013a, 2014).In an intercultural and inclusive approach, the curriculum becomes emanci­patory (Freire, 1921/1985), allowing vulnerable cultural minorities to share their own knowledge and ways of thinking, to appropriate knowledge, to develop and to mobilize abilities and competences, promoting school and social inclusion. Po­sitioning itself as a mediational tool between school cultures and the other cultures in which students participate, the curriculum can contribute to the development of regulatory dynamics, allowing students to act as legitimate participants instead of peripheral participants (Cesar, 2009, 2013a, 2013b; Cesar & Oliveira, 2005; Lave & Wenger, 1991).Dialogical self, collaborative work, and project workThe theory of the dialogical self (Hermans, 2001, 2003, 2008) is a lens (or one more lens) that allows us to understand learning processes, students' access to achievement and to school and socio-professional inclusion. Hermans (2001, 2003) conceives of the self as being constituted by the I self, the subject who acts and thinks about his/her experiences, and the Me self, the object of these very experiences. Each person assumes different I-positions, for instance, as mother, daughter, wife, friend, professional, or student. These identity positions may be assumed successively or simultaneously, and they are more or less dominant in that space and time (Cesar, 2013a), that is, in the architecture that characterizes a given situation. …