This proposal reports on a doctoral research, previously presented at ECER, that was guided by the following research question: How can Global Citizenship Education through Intercomprehension be integrated into the Portuguese curriculum? The study examines the intersection of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and Intercomprehension (IC) within the Portuguese educational system, with a particular focus on the first cycle of basic education, corresponding to the early years of schooling, i.e. children aged between 5 and 10 years old.

The main objective of the research is to develop a theoretical framework capable of interpreting the curricular potential of GCE through Intercomprehension in Portugal. Drawing on a Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) methodology, the study seeks to build a comprehensive understanding of how these educational concepts intersect and interact within the specific socio-cultural context of the Portuguese education system, and how such interactions may be translated into curricular and pedagogical terms.

At the core of the conceptual framework lies a critical approach to GCE and an understanding of IC as a multifaceted construct. Since receiving particular attention through the Global Education First Initiative (United Nations, 2012), GCE has occupied a prominent place in international and national educational agendas worldwide. Nevertheless, it remains a complex and chameleonic construct, serving and/or being mobilized for multiple purposes and ends (Pashby et al., 2020; Stein, 2015; Tarrozi & Torres, 2018; Torres, 2017). In this sense, to speak about global citizenship education today is to engage with “multiple ideological constellations overlapping and even contradicting one another” (Pashby et al., 2020, p. 1).

A critical approach to GCE (Andreotti, 2006), as one of those ideological constellations, enables a rigorous examination of GCE’s potential to engage with historical legacies—such as Portugal’s colonial past—in connection with contemporary challenges, thereby orienting educational action towards a more sustainable and socially-justice based society. From an ontological perspective, critical GCE also opens space for IC to emerge as an educational goal aimed at preparing citizens for plural interactions of both cultural and linguistic nature (Andrade, 2003; Doyé, 2005; Parrança-da-Silva & Andrade, 2018; Parrança-da-Silva, 2024). This convergence between GCE and IC appears particularly promising insofar as it offers a possible response to requirements articulated in Portuguese curricular orientations that emphasize students’ personal and social development during this stage of schooling—encompassing purposes of qualification, socialization, and subjectification (Biesta, 2009, 2020).

For some time, IC has been described as “One of the most remarkable and challenging ideas for the realization of a plurilingual education” (Doyé, 2005, p. 7). Emerging from didactics debates in the last decade of the twentieth century, IC came to be understood as a communicative situation in which each citizen uses their own language while understanding that of the other. Importantly, since its origins, IC has carried an intention towards inclusion and social justice, insofar as it affords equitable space and voice to one’s identity. This orientation contributed to the development of IC’s multifaceted identity, increasingly recognized not only as a form of communication or a pedagogical approach, but also as a means to foster inclusive educational environments conducive to social justice, as well as equitable and responsible participation.

By exploring and discussing these theoretical underpinnings alongside Portuguese curricular references and the empirical data collected and analyzed during the research process, this study aims to propose a framework that highlights the synergistic relationship between GCE and IC. In doing so, it seeks to offer grounded insights into how educators—particularly teachers in the first cycle of basic education—may effectively integrate these concepts into both the curriculum and their pedagogical practice.

This research adopts a CGT methodology (Charmaz, 2006, 2008; Clarke, 2003; Tarozzi, 2020) to explore, in a comprehensive and systematic manner, the integration of GCE and IC within the first years of schooling in Portugal. Originally developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), GT is particularly adequate for the study of complex social phenomena, as it enables the production of theoretical insights that emerge directly from empirical data. In broad terms, GT may be understood both as a strategic approach to theorizing and as a set of methodological procedures that guide the iterative movement between data collection, analysis, and conceptual development. The research design comprises two inter-related qualitative inquiries. The first is grounded in a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of GCE and the Portuguese curricular framework. The second examines the practices, perceptions, and experiences of educators who participated in a teacher training course (TTC) developed within the Erasmus+ project “TEDS – Teacher Education for Sustainability – Schools educating for sustainability: proposals for and from in-service teacher education” (2019-1-PT01-KA201-060830), focusing on the theme “Dialogue, diversity and inclusion”. Participants in the TTC included kindergarten educators and teachers representing all levels of the Portuguese education system, thereby ensuring a diverse and institutionally representative set of perspectives relevant to the research problem. Regarding the first qualitative inquiry, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to gather relevant material published on GCE and IC up to 2023, together with the key documentary corpus necessary to address the subject matter and the particularities of the first school years. This step aimed to assemble a robust analytical baseline from which to interpret conceptual trends, curricular orientations, and the broader educational debates that frame the potential articulation between these two domains. Qualitative methods were also selected in order to accommodate both the diversity of participants and the multifaceted nature of the phenomena under investigation, while enabling an in-depth capture of participants’ perspectives. Data were collected from multiple sources so as to construct a rich understanding of TTC participants’ practices, perceptions, and experiences. The main data sources included teacher interviews, teacher project planning documents, teachers’ reflections, and educational resources, namely, tangible materials resulting from students’ learning, produced during the implementation of the educational projects developed by teachers as part of the TTC. Overall, this methodological approach enabled an in-depth exploration of how GCE and IC may be articulated within the Portuguese educational context, drawing on diverse sources of evidence to support nuanced insights and theoretically informed interpretations.

In our doctoral research, conducted in Portugal between 2019 and 2026, we undertook a comprehensive exploration of the possibilities for integrating GCE through IC within the Portuguese curriculum. Grounded in a critical approach to GCE and in an understanding of IC as a multifaceted educational resource oriented towards social justice, this investigation engaged with the complex challenges and opportunities that arise at the intersection of these two educational constructs in the Portuguese socio-educational context. The research contributes to ongoing discussions on GCE and IC by delineating a pedagogical intersection area and by offering a more comprehensive understanding of both concepts and their potential curricular enactment in Portugal, particularly when viewed through a Biestian lens (Biesta, 2005, 2009, 2020). By adopting a CGT approach, the study sought to construct a theoretical framework attentive to the complexities and nuances of the Portuguese social and educational context, the empirical materials collected, and the theorization processes mobilized throughout the research. In this way, the work aimed to generate analytically grounded insights capable of informing education policy and practice, ultimately supporting the pursuit of a more inclusive, equitable, and globally-minded educational landscape in Portugal. For this presentation, we will provide an overall view of the study and then briefly discuss the main findings and insights generated by the research.

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