Educational processes and the production of common sense. The case of colonialism in Portuguese textbooks
The role of school systems in building nation-states has been widely discussed. Less discussed has been the fundamental role of schools in the construction of common sense. It is on this function of the school that I will focus here. In particular, the keynote will address the role of textbooks in the transmission and dissemination of social representations of Portuguese colonialism as exceptional and ‘benevolent’. After a brief description of these representations at work in contemporary society, I will present a study of colonialism in Portuguese history textbooks from the 1950s until now. Despite the diachronic changes found, there is still no material or discussion in textbooks to counter or contradict the myth of the ‘benevolent’ colonialism. I conclude with a discussion of the possible implications that this situation may have for attitudes between groups, for intercultural relations and for the promotion of democracy in contemporary societies.
Bio
Joaquim Pires Valentim (JPV) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra. He holds a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Coimbra in 2004. He also did the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication (University of Helsinki, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, ISCTE Lisbon, 2004).
His main research fields are on social representations, intergroup relations, cultural diversity, and political psychology. In these areas, he has been PI, Co-PI, and team member in Portuguese national (e.g., FCT) and in European funded projects (e.g., 7th Framework Program and COST). He is currently the coordinator of the Horizon Europe project CONCILIARE – Confidently Changing Colonial Heritage with 9 academic and 2 non-academic institutions from 6 European countries (BE, HR, FIN, IT, NL, PT). JPV published regularly in international peer-review journals, and is author of the books Escola, Igualdade e Diferença [School, equality and difference] (1997, Campo das Letras), Societal Approaches in Social Psychology (2011, Peter Lang), Representações sociais [Social representations] (2022, Sílabo) and with K. van Nieuwenhuyse, The colonial past in history textbooks. Historical and social psychological perspectives (2018, Information Age Publishing).