As Narrativas Biográficas e as metodologias de investigação-acção sobre a memória e o esquecimento

The integration of Biographical Knowledge in research processes is a methodological proposal of critical empiricism that shifts the centre of production of knowledge to the research objects. We try to show haw Biographical Narratives can allow bypassing the locks and the deviations from real observation by the researcher and focus is work on actors in process. In the critique of the Eurocentric paradigm and is production of hegemonic scientific discourses by Bonaventura Sousa Santos (Santos, 2000) proposes the "south epistemologies" as a research process and the inclusion of knowledge of actors as the research field. In the article we will try to look at the process of production of biographical narratives using the tools of south epistemological proposal. We start reviewing the methodologies working on biographical objects. Then we present the preliminary studies and research we have been doing in communities in southern Mozambique in Djabula Community Centre. These results should be completed with other works on the ground, and now we opened as a collaborative process discussion on African Studies community. The project will be completed in the coming months, through the proposal of a "House of memories" to develop with the local population through articles, stories, sounds and dances that are chosen and will support the chosen narratives by the community. The projects created with local players, from their problems allow rapprochement and dialogue between the different knowledge.

As Narrativas Biográficas e as metodologias de investigação-acção sobre a memória e o esquecimento

The integration of Biographical Knowledge in research processes is a methodological proposal of critical empiricism that shifts the center of production of knowledge to the referred research objects. We try to show how Biographical Narratives can allow bypassing the locks and the deviations from real observation by the researcher, and focus his work on the actors in process. In the critique of the Eurocentric paradigm and its production of hegemonic scientific papers presentations and speaches, by Bonaventura Sousa Santos (Santos, 2000), proposes the "south epistemologies" as a research process and the inclusion of knowledge of actors as the research field. In the article, we will try to look at the production process of biographical narratives, using the tools of south epistemological proposal. We start with reviewing the methodologies, working on biographical objects, then we will present the preliminary studies and research that has been ongoing in several communities in southern Mozambique, in Djabula Community Centre. These results should be completed with other field works, as we open as a collaborative process discussion on African Studies community. We expect the project to be completed in the coming months, aiming towards the proposal of a "House of memories", in order to develop with the local population through articles, stories, sounds and dances that are selected and will support the chosen narratives by the community. The projects created with local players, from their problems will allow a rapprochement and dialogue between different kinds of knowledge."

As Narrativas Biográficas e as metodologias de investigação-acção sobre a memória e o esquecimento

The integration of Biographical Knowledge in research processes is a methodological proposal of critical empiricism that shifts the center of production of knowledge to the referred research objects. We try to show how Biographical Narratives can allow bypassing the locks and the deviations from real observation by the researcher, and focus his work on the actors in process. In the critique of the Eurocentric paradigm and its production of hegemonic scientific papers presentations and speaches, by Bonaventura Sousa Santos (Santos, 2000), proposes the "south epistemologies" as a research process and the inclusion of knowledge of actors as the research field. In the article, we will try to look at the production process of biographical narratives, using the tools of south epistemological proposal. We start with reviewing the methodologies, working on biographical objects, then we will present the preliminary studies and research that has been ongoing in several communities in southern Mozambique, in Djabula Community Centre. These results should be completed with other field works, as we open as a collaborative process discussion on African Studies community. We expect the project to be completed in the coming months, aiming towards the proposal of a "House of memories", in order to develop with the local population through articles, stories, sounds and dances that are selected and will support the chosen narratives by the community. The projects created with local players, from their problems will allow a rapprochement and dialogue between different kinds of knowledge."

Museology as a pedagogy for heritage

This essay presents some parameters for the study of Museology and its respective contribution for the constitution of preservationist processes, biased towards heritage education. From the decoding of some parameters that delimit this applied discipline’s action and reflection field, the text presents some paradigms, which have stimulated its epistemological construction and have guided its social functions. These paradigms are considered responsible for a new methodological order within the scope of the museum and, further, for the new commitments that these institutions have taken up.

Museum Studies Borderlands: negotiating curriculum and competencies

Given ICTOP‘s work on revising the curriculum guide using the competencies approach (2000-2008), the author asks whether it is possible to reflect some of the issues and conceptual underpinnings that are at play in the discourse of museology/museum studies as a field of study and pedagogy when designing curriculum when taking the competencies approach. Until we address this question, ICTOP‘s work will have little relevance for the design of syllabi/curriculum by post-secondary institutions. This presentation lays out some of the professional issues underlying and the role for critical reflexive professionalism which can bridge theory and practice, competencies and epistemological knowledge and s how a way forward. Then it moves to address some of the territories where critical discussion is at work that would extend the curriculum discussions of ICTOP, while pointing to some developments that offer a museology of possibilities.

Fifty Years After Angicos : Paulo Freire, Popular Education and the Struggle for a Better World that is Possible

The main thesis of this paper is that Freire’s original experience in Angicos anticipated a grand design for social transformation of educational systems. As such it brought together two key concepts that formulated the basis of his educational system: popular culture as an counter-hegemonic project and popular education, more particularly what was later called citizen schools or public popular education as keystone of his new educational system. I use the term Paulo Freire System to show that his original attempts were not only to challenge pedagogical the prevailing banking education system that was so pervasive in Brazil and Latin American at the time. In challenging the hegemony of banking education, its narrative, theoretical foundations, epistemology and methodology, Freire and his team sought to create a new system that could replace the old one. They saw banking education not only as obsolete in terms of modernization of systems but also oppressive in gnoseological, epistemological and political terms. In the conclusion of this paper I will discuss the twins obsessions of Freire, already present in the Angicos experience and that will stay with him throughout his life: the relationship between democracy, citizenship and education, and education as a postcolonial ethical act of social transformation. I would like to emphasize therefore that the Paulo Freire system, as conceived in the Angicos experience and its aftermath was a much larger and comprehensive system that originally considered, even by his critics.