Making Sport History in the (Semi)Periphery: The Portuguese Perspective

Abstract

Sport is one of the most important phenomena in Portuguese contemporary life. Yet, in the late twentieth century, there were more historical studies about antique clocks and potatoes than on sport. Portuguese historians ended up successively underrating its place in history, placing sport in a kind of scientific (semi)periphery, with political history becoming the core of the matter. Sport, however, is an extremely important element in any serious attempt to reconstruct contemporary history, popular culture and what it means to be Portuguese. This paper analyses the history of the Portuguese historical writing and academic research on sport history, also its emergence, development, and contemporary position in the historiography of a (semi)peripheral country, in a comparative way with the Centre. The concept of (semi)periphery is employ to describe both the situation of sport history in Portugal and the Portuguese (sport) historiography in the international context.     

Research: an insight on how it is valued by Portuguese and English teacher educators

ABSTRACT

The quality of how teachers are being prepared is seen as a priority in the twenty-first century and engagement with research is often considered a crucial element of initial teacher education programmes. Institutional and national contexts have an impact in the way research is valued. This paper investigates the perspectives of Portuguese and English teacher educators towards the value given to research in initial teacher education. Interviews were completed with teacher educators working within different kinds of higher education institutions—university, polytechnic and teaching-led university. Results suggest that research has a significant presence and relevance in all cases but is valued differently     

The importance and degree of implementation of the European standards and guidelines for internal quality assurance in universities: the views of Portuguese academics

Abstract

The article aims at critically discussing the role and position of a buffer agency from the point of view of some of its different tasks, viz. accreditation, quality audit, support of academic leadership and internal quality enhancement The contribution seeks to illuminate the conflicting roles of a buffer orgamsation in the light of these tasks and pressures from the government and higher education institutions. It concludes that the different roles can support and complement each other, and that change is best accomplished by emphasising support in the early stages of the establishment of a national quality assurance system.     

The entrepreneurialisation of school work as a central theme in present educational changes: the Portuguese case

It is assumed in this paper that the main trend in global education policies is based on an entrepreneurial model intended to submit school work to the same logic that prevails in economic systems at large. Thus, I try to recognise such a model in current educational changes in Portugal. Two paths for the entrepreneurialisation of school work were identified, both of which have a strong influence in this country. As it is the rule in a global context, slogans such as ‘educational excellence’, ‘success for all’, ‘lifelong learning’ or ‘acquisition of essential skills’ are the cornerstones of the educational policies nowadays in Portugal. The continuous improvement of school productivity appears to be the main goal of the public education system in these policies.     

Interest in school and educational success in Portugal

A large body of work in educational economics displays the tenuous relationship between school inputs and cognitive achievement. Among others, the inability to establish a strong link has been attributed to the difficulty of controlling for attributes such as ability, motivation, and interest. Against this background, and inspired by work in economics and educational psychology, the authors examine whether a child's interest in school has a bearing on educational success. The panel data estimates, based on Portuguese data, show that after controlling for socioeconomic background, school inputs, and time-invariant unobservable traits, children with high levels of interest are 6–10 percentage points less likely to fail as compared with children with low and medium levels of interest.     

葡萄牙足球发展研究

通过文献资料法、专家访谈法、数理统计法和逻辑分析法对葡萄牙足球的发展状况进行了研究,研究发现:葡超联赛的竞争平衡性差,少数俱乐部形成联赛垄断局面;形成注册会员众多与现场观众寥寥的悖论;葡萄牙足协与联盟的关系紧张、争议不断,管理效率差;电视转播权的单独销售模式造成俱乐部两级分化,俱乐部财务状况不佳;得益于葡萄牙语国家共同体形成的政策优势,葡萄牙足球后备人才的数量充足,成为欧洲足球人才的重要来源地。葡萄牙职业足球联赛处于欧洲职业足球联赛的第二集团,联赛的组织、管理与经营存在很多问题,但在巴西等足球人才库的支持下,葡萄牙的青训体系比较先进,足球后备人才的培养方面值得借鉴。     

徽州海盗商人胡胜

从《甓余杂集》记载的徽州海盗商人胡胜等的供状中可以看出，他们充当了葡萄牙殖民势力侵华的帮凶，是葡人在商业上的附庸。胡胜等人的活动有悖于徽州商业资本的运动方向。     

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

The purpose of this study was to describe the quality of toddler child care classrooms in the district of Porto, in the north of Portugal. One hundred and sixty classrooms for children between 1 and 3 years of age participated in this study. Results suggested the existence of poor average quality and absence of good-quality classrooms. Child–adult ratio was a statistically significant predictor of overall child care quality (with lower ratios associated with higher quality). The results of this study provide information on the applicability of ITERS-R to a new cultural and linguistic context, suggesting the need to enhance the quality of Portuguese programs serving toddlers.     

浅析葡萄牙合作主义国家的起源及特征

作为20世纪两次世界大战之间右翼反自由主义浪潮的组成部分，葡萄牙合作主义国家有着不同于同时代其他右翼政权的特征。它既异于传统右翼，也和法西斯主义不尽相同，而呈现出鲜明的“葡萄牙特色”。分析了葡萄牙合作主义国家是在什么样的背景下形成的，及其究竟有哪些区别于其他右翼统治尤其是法西斯统治的特征。     

From Students to Consumers: reflections on the marketisation of Portuguese higher education

A progressive attempt to replace traditional public administration values and concepts by others that are closer to private management can be observed in the replacement of the service user concept by that of consumer or client. This redefinition's more implicit or explicit intent is to increase consumers'/clients' status, their capacity to choose and make rational choices in the market, and, ultimately, to ensure that organisations fulfil their needs. Influenced by this tendency, higher education institutions (HEIs) also started to see students as clients or consumers and to influence their choices by trying to define HE demand. This is evident in the shift in their external communication strategies: ‘institutional information’, based on HEIs' prestige, is being progressively replaced by ‘marketed information’, based on economic consumer logic. In trying to understand how students are perceived by Portuguese HEIs, we undertook qualitative research based on the content analysis of undergraduate degrees' announcements in newspapers. Major findings evidence that their content: (1) can be classified in a continuum bounded by two poles: the use of ‘institutional information’ and the use of ‘marketed information’; (2) show the presence of a social representation of students as clients or consumers; (3) seems related to HEIs' nature (public vs. private), positioning in the HE system (universities and polytechnics) and ‘symbolic capital’ (traditional vs. new institutions).