Promoting interculturalism through art education : a case study Portugal and Latvia

This study examines art student’s awareness, understanding and practices of intercultural art education in higher institution of art. Specifically, the research focused on Art Academy of Latvia, Riga. The purpose was to promote “interculturalism’’ among students and to acquaint them with the knowledge and skills of developing and reflecting on their cultural values and that of others’. For 10 weeks, 7 students in the Art Academy of Latvia explored the Traditional African Ceramics. My research included data gathered from student questionnaires, class discussions, interviews, observations, student artwork and photographs from their personal activities. I likewise took note of the students’ practical works and their approach to African-based ceramics. First, in literature review, I discuss my purpose of study, why the study is important, limitations, statements of problem, and further research. Secondly, I examine culture and paradigms of cultures, comprehensive context of the African history and traditions of the African ceramics, the importance of intercultural art education. Then, I describe how the case study in Latvia was carried out among 7 participants’ who are students from 2nd year – masters’ level. The case study involved 7 students from the department of graphics, glass, ceramics and painting with the aim of promoting intercultural learning among art students. The case study reveals participants’ attitude towards intercultural education and reveal the importance of intercultural education in higher institutions of art as well as other institutions of learning. Although the participants were positive attitude towards other culture, the study reveals that creating awareness through intercultural art and exposing students to other culture enhances their creativity ability to explore other culture and they are more likely to be opened in sharing their experiences and their cultural perspective. Experiencing culture based- art create awareness of other cultures

Assessing student perceptions and comprehension of climate change in portuguese higher education institutions

The higher education system has a critical role to play in educating environmentally aware and participant citizens about global climate change. Yet, few studies have focused on higher education students’ knowledge and attitudes about this issue. This study aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of views and attitudes about climate change issues, across the postgraduate student population in three universities—the on Campus University of Porto and University of Coimbra, and the distance learning Universidade Aberta, Portugal. We surveyed university students and graduates from three master programs in environmental sciences targeting their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change issues, and their views of the role that their master degree had on it. A majority of the respondents believed that climate change is factual, and is largely human-induced; and a majority expressed concerns about climate change. Still, the surveyed students hold some misconceptions about basic causes and consequences of climate change. Further research is necessary to comprehend the university postgraduate students’ population, so that curricula programs can be adapted to grant consensus on scientific knowledge about climate change, and an active engagement of the graduate citizens, as part of the solution for climate change problems.