The structuration of comparative discourse and the imagination of knowledge spaces: Portugal, the ‘South of Europe’, and the ‘South below’

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe present article addresses the issue of structuration of the field of Comparative Education in Portugal. The narrative is constructed at two levels, one of a more descriptive nature, the other more interpretative. In the first part of the text, the construction of a comparative imagination is addressed on the basis of four main points in time: the impact of overseas echoes in education reforms (seventeenth to nineteenth century), the importance of the pedagogical experiences acquired in overseas missions (nineteenth to twentieth century), internationalisation of the educational question in the African colonies (late nineteenth century, mid twentieth century) and finally, the impact of international bodies on the modernisation of the Portuguese education system (50s, mid-70s). In the second part of the text, the emergence of the field of Comparative Education is discussed as a scientific research area, and as an autonomous formative component. Several disciplinarization dynamics and their institutional application points are identified, pointing to the importance of European Union funded projects for the integration of research groups in international comparative study networks. Towards the end of the text, several standard approaches that structure comparative discourse and the practices of Portuguese researchers are pinpointed.