Bachelor’s degree in Basic Education in Portugal: a comparative analysis

Abstract

In Portugal, the Bachelor´s Degree in Basic Education, created as a result of the Bologna Process, was a novelty in the context of initial teacher training and a specificity in the training of professionals who educate children between 0 and 12 years old. This work is an attempt to understand how the different higher education institutions put in place the legal guidelines concerning the curricular design of the Bachelor´s Degree in Basic Education and the decisions they made within the scope of their autonomy. For this purpose, a comparative analysis has been conducted of the study plans of 25 Basic Education programs available in Portugal along the 2021–2022 academic year regarding the organization of the different training components (teacher education, general educational training, specific teaching methods, and introduction to professional practice). As a result of the analysis, it is possible to conclude that Basic Education courses are characterized by the appreciation, within the scope of the higher education institutions’ autonomy, of the general educational training component and by a discipline-based model of curriculum design. However, major differences stand out regarding the way in which the introduction into professional practice is implemented, namely: the number of credits and hours of internship; the number of contexts included in the introduction into professional practice; and the moment these curricular units/disciplines are introduced throughout the course.