This PhD project focuses on the field of development education (DE) and it aims to characterize, analyze and understand the Portuguese DE scenario, regarding three main knowledge domains: 1) recent and current practices (e.g.projects); 2) views and conceptions of their main promotors (e.g.NGOs) and other relevant actors (e.g.academics); and 3) possible articulations, distances and proximities between the practical and conceptual levels, thus opening up space for a cross-reading of these domains.

Over the last 40 years, there has been a growing research and political interest in the role of education towards global development, placed at the heart of several transnational initiatives in the development and cooperation arena, such as the multi-stakeholder Education For All movement, the Global Education First Initiative, or the Millennium (2000-2015) and Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030).

Alongside, there is an increasing focus on what is designed by “global education”, understood as one “that opens people’s eyes and minds to the realities of the world, and awakens them to bring about a world of greater justice, equity and human rights for all” (NSCCE,2003:13). Development education is an important part of global education, many times being used synonymously, and can be defined as a “permanent educational process which favours social, cultural, political and economic interrelationships between the North and the South, and (…)promotes those values and attitudes of solidarity and justice that must characterise a responsible global citizenship” (IPAD,2006:45).

Terminology in this field is far from stabilized and several terms have been applied to label educational practices and principles most concerned with promoting awareness on global issues, with similar and sometimes equal meanings. Besides the aforementioned, terms as global dimension, global learning or global citizenship education (Hicks,2003;Marshall,2006), emerged “as ways of responding to the new social, cultural and economic contexts of a globalised world” (Bourn,2014:11),allowing different relationships between education and development (Liddy,2013).

In Europe, several efforts to clarify these terms have been made, most notably concerning global and development education, providing input about its roots, evolution and typologies (Mesa,2011; Krause,2010),as well as sociological and ideological issues (Marshal,2005,2006; Andreotti,2006). Nonetheless, relevant conceptual challenges still remain unaddressed. Joint efforts between academics and civil society actors are highly encouraged both by research, advocay and policy levels, towards a better understanding of practices and their grounding concepts (Skinner et al,2014; GENE,2014; OECD,2010; Krause,2010).

Moreover, important steps have been taken on the European policy level, with recommendations and strategic documentation aiming to foster communication and collaboration between several actors enrolled in the field (European Commission,2006). At the practice and advocacy levels, countries’ commitment to DE seems to be growingly solid, as demonstrated by several country reports on systemic adoption of policies and practices, with a leading part frequently taken by NGOs (TRIALOG,2014; O’Loughlin & Wegimont,2008;2007).

Portugal has been working on DE over the last 30 years, mostly under the efforts of a network of NGOs, frequently also operating in development cooperation (PPONGD,2014; IPAD,2009). An important turning point was the creation of a National Strategy for DE (2010-2015), resulting from a partnership of policy, advocacy and practice stakeholders (Santos,2013). This strategy as well as the overall Portuguese reality has been mapped and monitored at the European level by the Global Education Network Europe (GENE,2014),complimented by the long-lasting participation in European NGO Confederation CONCORD (Skinner et al.,2014). Generic information on policies, priorities, stakeholders and projects is publicly available, mostly, by the Portuguese government and Platform of Development NGOs, but specific knowledge is necessary. Moreover, and notwithstanding the collaboration of important actors in the academic field, research corpus and training offer on such topics are still very scarce, thus claiming for a comprehensive and evidence-based research effort.

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