The INTERACT Project: The Intercultural Dimension of Citizenship Education in

the Iberian Peninsula

El Proyecto INTERACT: la dimensión intercultural de la educación para la

ciudadanía en el contexto de la Península Ibérica

Castro Prieto, Paloma (Facultad de Educación y Trabajo Social, Universidad de Valladolid,

E-mail: pcastro@dlyl.uva.es)
Guilherme, Manuela (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Colégio de S.
Jerónimo. Portugal). E-mail: manuelaguilherme@sapo.pt)
Pureza, Jose Manuel (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Colégio de S.
Jerónimo, Portugal). E-mail: jmp@fe.uc.pt)

Resumen

Presentamos el Proyecto INTERACT –Educación para la ciudadanía intercultural-

dentro de su ámbito de aplicación en la Península Ibérica. Hemos realizado un estudio
comparativo en torno a la dimensión intercultural de la educación para la ciudadanía
entre los documentos europeos (Comisión Europea y Consejo de Europa) y los
documentos nacionales, en España y Portugal. Hemos entrevistado, igualmente, a
académicos, políticos y funcionarios europeos, que han influido en el proceso de
elaboración de los documentos. Este proyecto, financiado por el VI Programa Marco, se
encuentra actualmente en el ecuador de sus tres años de duración. En lo que respecta a
Portugal, también recibe financiación de la Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian. En el
análisis crítico realizado, hemos apreciado el cambio cronológico de algunos conceptos
relacionados con la interculturalidad y con la ciudadanía desde finales de los años 70.
En este momento, estamos en la fase de preparación del estudio empírico con profesores
de ambos países para seguir el modelo de interpretación y aplicación de estos conceptos.
Finalmente, tenemos como objetivo preparar recomendaciones para programas de
formación del profesorado.

Abstract
We intend to present the INTERACT – Intercultural Citizenship Education Project
within its scope in the Iberian Peninsula. We have made a comparison study between
the intercultural dimension of citizenship education in European documents (both those
issued by the European Commission and by the Council of Europe) and national
documents, both in Spain and in Portugal. We have also interviewed academics,
politicians and civil servants that have somehow influenced the course of production of
these documents. This project is in the middle of its 3 year duration and is funded by the
VI Framework Programme. In Portugal, it also received the financial support of
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. We have undertaken a critical analysis and appreciated
the chronological change of several concepts related to interculturality and to
citizenship throughout the production of such documents since the late seventies. We
are now preparing to start an empirical study with teachers from both countries in order
to follow the pattern of interpretation and application of such concepts. We eventually
aim to prepare some recommendations for teacher education programmes at
postgraduate level.
 Introduction

The INTERACT – Intercultural Active Citizenship Education Project

(www.ces.uc.pt/interact) is a 3-year specific targeted research project funded by the VI
European Framework Programme, Priority 7, whose partners are: (a) The Department of
Educational Anthropology, Danmarks Paedagogiske Universitet; (b) Centro de Estudos
Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra (coordinator); (c) Departamento de la Lengua y la
Literatura, Universidad de Valladolid, and (d) Institute of Education, University of
London & Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education, University of Leeds,
United Kingdom. This presentation will concentrate on the Iberian part of this project.

This project is meant to focus on the intercultural element of citizenship and

human rights education and it aims to provide guidelines for teacher education in this
area. It intends to follow three main steps: (1) document analysis; (2) curriculum
analysis; and (3) an empirical study. The first step, document analysis, concentrated on
the analysis of the intercultural dimension in European and national official documents
that regulate citizenship and human rights education or a related area. At this stage,
comparative/contrastive analysis between European and national documents and across
national official documents in this area is to be carried out. The second step, curriculum
analysis, consisted of examining the intercultural dimension in existent teacher
development and postgraduate programmes aimed to Citizenship and Human Rights
educators. The third step, the empirical study, will consist of statistical analysis and
ethnographic research to be carried out amongst policy-makers and teachers of
Citizenship and Human Rights, as an independent subject or as an integrated element in
the curriculum, within a discipline or at an interdisciplinary level. A questionnaire,
individual interviews and focus-group interviews will be the research tools used to
gather information.

This project aims to establish links between official documents, curriculum

management and the teachers’ experiences, interests and expectations with regard to
Citizenship and Human Rights Education, with a special focus on the intercultural
dimension, in order to make general and specific recommendations as far as teacher
education in this area is concerned. The purpose of this project is to contribute to the
effective implementation of official guidelines on this matter and to the expansion of
good practices that have been scattered in schools. This project will take into
consideration both the institutional and the teachers’ voices, both as citizens and as
educators, and seek common ground that may be potentially fertile in terms of teacher
education. This project is meant to map out, in each of the participant countries, the
teacher development programmes and postgraduate courses that can offer relevant
education for educators, as far as the intercultural dimension of citizenship and human
rights is concerned, and to assess them in the light of the reviewed bibliography, of the
official guidelines, at the European and national guidelines, and of the teachers’ voices.
It is our purpose to follow the various levels of policy making in this specific field so
that some recommendations can be made with regard to teacher education, an element
that has proved to be falling behind the expectations of policy makers, theoreticians and
practitioners in general.

1. Conceptual analysis

Through our comparative/contrastive analysis between the findings in the

Portuguese and Spanish official and national documents, it became clear to us that the
type of official documents (and their contents) was not exactly the same. The Spanish
legal documents regulating educational matters nationwide are more comprehensive,
compared to the Portuguese ones, by including syllabus guidelines which in Portugal
are only present in subsequent (non-legal) documents.

Concepts in Spanish and specially in Portuguese documents are closely related

to intercultural citizenship (e.g. ‘Integration’, ‘Difference’, ‘Respect’, ‘Diversity’,
‘Pluralism’, ‘Critical Spirit’, ‘[In]tolerance’). With regard to frequency, there are some
concepts like Patriotism, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, which might be related to
specific kinds of discrimination, which are absolutely absent from the legal documents
analysed in the reports. ‘(In)tolerance’ is the only that presents a balanced degree of
occurrence in both countries, even though in Portugal it is mainly connected to
questions of ethnicity and cultural difference, while in Spain it includes more
dimensions of difference (e.g. gender and religion). Nation(alism) is more frequently
used in Portuguese documents rather than in the Spanish ones. In Portugal, ‘national
identity’ (which is a phrase that only Portuguese documents use) appears in a positive
sense. ‘Discrimination’ and ‘integration’, for example, are very present in Portugal and
Spain. However, ‘discrimination’ is more carefully defined in Spanish documents since
there is explicit reference to the kinds of discriminations that are being addressed.
‘Integration’ is the most popular concept in Portugal and ‘exclusion’ is not given the
same relevance in Spain as it is in Portugal, where it is quite frequent. ‘Race(ism)’ and
‘xenophobia’, which are usually used together, are less frequent concepts in both
countries.

If we try to gather the concepts analysed under three main clusters: (a) political
dimension; (b) cultural dimension; and (c) social dimension, we verify that, in the first
slot, concepts like ‘democracy’, ‘responsibility(ies)’, ‘rights and duties’, ‘freedom’,
‘respect’ and ‘participation’ are widely used in both countries. We can also notice that
‘universalism’, ‘humanism’ and ‘solidarity’ are common concepts in Portuguese and
Spanish documents, with a noticeable preference for the latter. However, ‘peace’ rarely
appears in the same contexts.

In the second cluster group of concepts, the ones with a ‘cultural dimension’,
‘identity’, ‘diversity’ and ‘multicultural’ are concepts which are common to both
countries, though moderately used. ‘Intercultural’ is also recurrent in later documents,
although moderately used. ‘Ethnicity’ is frequent in Portuguese official documents, but
not very frequent in Spain. ‘Pluralism’ is a term which appears in both Portuguese and
Spanish documents, even though in the former it is very rare and in the latter is one of
the top recurrent concepts. In terms of approach to cultural matters, ‘critical spirit’ is
quite used both in Spain and Portugal.

In the third and final cluster of concepts, the social dimension, the term
‘(in)equality’ appears in the documents of both countries, although with moderate
frequency. Concepts with a negative connotation, like ‘discrimination’ and ‘race(ism)’
seldom appear in these documents, nevertheless, the term ‘exclusion’ is quite recurrent
in Portuguese documents but not in the Spanish ones where it is mentioned only once.

2. Instrument and strategy analysis

 By “instrument analysis” we mean the identification and description of the
instruments provided by the National Government for developing an intercultural
education. We have considered as instruments for our analysis the documents of
educative policy, the curriculum, programs and projects in both countries, Portugal and
Spain.
By “strategy analysis” we mean the identification of those strategies found in the
instruments for implementing an intercultural education.

2.1. Instrument analysis

For an “instrument analysis” we focused on those official documents on

educational policy in Portugal and Spain, with the purpose of identifying how
intercultural education is dealt. These documents have been divided into three groups:
framework laws, curriculum, and programs and projects.
a. Framework Laws
In Portugal, the first framework law, which is still in force, is Lei de Bases do
Sistema Educativo 46/86 (Oct. 14, 1986). As far as the intercultural education is
concerned, one of the aims of education in this law is “to safeguard the national identity
and heritage”, bearing in mind “the universalistic European tradition and the increasing
interdependence and solidarity amongst all peoples in the world”.

In 2004, a bill for a new Education Framework Law (Lei de Bases da

Educação), meant to replace the 1986 one, was presented to Parliament. This law was
not supported by opposition parties, however, there is a high probability that it will be
proposed a second time. With respect to intercultural education, we could identify
education goals such as to consolidate a free, responsible and democratic way of “living
together”, to promote an awareness of the growing interdependence and solidarity
among different peoples and the duty to considerate and value different knowledge and
cultures, and to cultivate a democratic and pluralist spirit, respectful of the Other, of
their characters, ideas and life projects.

In Spain, the two education laws which are in force at the moment are the Ley
de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo, 1990 (LOGSE) and the Ley Orgánica de
Calidad de la Educación, 2002 (LOCE). The reason why two different laws are in force
at the moment is the fact that the LOCE was approved but not implemented since a new
education law, LOE (Ley Orgánica de Educación), has been proposed by the
Government, which is currently going through a process of debate. In the underlying
principles of both laws (LOGSE and LOCE) we found an intercultural dimension in a
concept of education oriented towards the respect of a cultural plurality, the
establishment of affective and cognitive relationships, participation in a democratic
society by respecting its pluralism, and a critical performance of freedom, respect and
solidarity.

b. Curriculum
With regard to the curriculum in Basic Education in Portugal (Framework Law
46/86) and as far as the intercultural dimension in education is concerned, there is no
specific reference except for some principles that can be traced to it, namely the
opportunity to learn two foreign languages and the promotion of values such as
solidarity and cooperation. On the other hand, one of the aims of basic education is to
develop the knowledge and appreciation of Portuguese values, identity, language,
history and culture. In Secondary Education, a curriculum re-organization was
implemented through Law-Decree 7/2001. In this document, there are no explicit
references to intercultural education. A new reform is being implemented through Law-
Decree 74/2004. Although there is not yet any explicit reference to an intercultural
dimension on education, there is, for the first time within an educational reform,
reference to the importance of promoting Portuguese language learning amongst non-
native speakers in the Portuguese educational system.

In Spain, there is also no explicit reference to an intercultural dimension on

education in the curriculum. The only reference is within the context of “intercultural
variety” (LOCE). In Primary Education, it is found implicitly in the subject Foreign
Languages: learning a foreign language “promotes a better understanding among people
and their cultures” and “favors attitudes of tolerance and respect towards the
international community” (Royal Decree 115/2004). The contents of this subject are
focused on communication and development of attitudes of respect towards the target
society. However, in Secondary Education it is made explicit with regard to the
development of intercultural abilities: “at the end of Secondary Education learners are
assumed to have intercultural abilities in order to favor intercultural encounters” (Royal
Decree 116/2004).

In other subjects such as Science, Geography and History an intercultural

dimension of education is implicit in aims such as “making children recognize the
differences and similarities among groups, valuing the enrichment that promotes the
respect for different cultures, and developing a spirit of solidarity with other human
beings” (Royal Decree 115/2004), and “to offer students a global view of the world and
a system of values that will help them to adopt an ethical attitude in a plural society,
promoting values of tolerance and solidarity through the knowledge of facts and events
from different historical periods and from geographical and cultural diversity” (Royal
Decree 116/2004).

c. Programs and Projects

Portugal created some programs in order to achieve an intercultural education:
- “Entreculturas” which concerns to multicultural education (Dispatch 63/91). It
tries to contribute to a climate of tolerance and respect for the right to
difference. It develops multiple projects dealing with specific communities,
such as East- Timorese, Gypsies and Cape-Verdian children.

- Gemination and School Exchange Program (Dispatch 28/ME/91): it promotes

the exchange between schools and school trips to foreign countries. It tries, as
well, to promote intercultural relations and create a consciousness of the
European space.

- Intercultural Education Project (Dispatch 170/ME/93) whose main aim is to

offer an intercultural education able to develop skills of adaptation to cultural
diversity in the Portuguese society, to integrate children from ethnic minorities,
to promote access to education, culture and science, and to promote
intercultural education in in-service training, both for teachers and non-
teaching staff.

- Youth Mobility and Exchange Program (Ministerial Decree 203/2001): a

Program created to promote social integration of youth, create conditions for
youth to live in socio- cultural and economic realities, and to contribute to the
strengthening of national identity.
 The Ministry of Education of Spain created specific intercultural programs like:

- Greco program: a global program of regulation and coordination of immigrants

that tries their integration to guarantee the coexistence in the Spanish society.

- Program of attention to the immigrant: aimed to favour the incorporation of

immigrants to the Spanish educative system and to develop specific learning
programs to facilitate their integration.

- Program of Education for the Gypsy Community: aimed to create didactic

material on the gypsy culture, to develop a framework on intercultural
mediation with the gypsy community and to develop special courses in initial
teacher education.
- Program of Portuguese Language and Culture: aimed to keep the linguistic and
cultural references of the children of Portuguese immigrants and to develop an
interest and respect in Spanish children for other cultures.
- Program MUS-E: aimed to foster Arts in the school in order to favour the
integration of disadvantaged children for preventing violence and racism.
- Program of Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Teaching: aimed to teach
Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture to children of those nationalities that
assist to Spanish schools in order to develop an intercultural education.

2.2. Strategy analysis

The strategy analysis has been focused on those strategies found in policy
documents that Spain and Portugal have implemented in order to develop an
intercultural education. As far as the curricula are concerned, intercultural education is
not central or transversal in any of the educative systems in both countries. The sole
direct reference to this dimension is made in the context of specific projects and
programmes developed in some schools targeting the education of migrant population
and ethnic minorities.

With regard to programmes and projects, the strategies for implementing an

intercultural education in Portugal are:
 a. A need to cooperate with higher education institutions in order to develop
contents regarding intercultural education, and to promote their inclusion in pre-
and in-service teacher training (Dispatch 63/91);
b. The development of multiple projects dealing with specific communities, such
as East-Timorese, Gypsies and Cape-Verdian children (Dispatch 63/91).
c. The promotion of cultural activities and school activities that bolster solidarity
and cooperation between school population, families and institutions and the
exchange of students and teachers as an interdisciplinary activity of pedagogical
and cultural nature (Dispatch 28/;E/91)
d. The proposal and development of national exchange trips lasting one week and
international exchange trips lasting two weeks (Ministerial Decree 203/2001)

In Spain, the strategies for implementing an intercultural education with regard to

projects and programmes are:
a. The promotion of a permanent teacher training in order to stimulate a critical
attitude and their innovation. In these teacher training programmes, teachers are
taught different methodological methods.
b. A specific educative attention to immigrant students in order to facilitate their
educative and social integration.
c. The promotion of values in the educative system to fight against racism and
xenophobia.
d. The promotion of dialogue between government and the immigrants´
representatives.
e. The creation of the role of “intercultural mediator” in schools with a high
number of immigrants.

Conclusion

We may conclude that, in both sets of documents, there are, on the one hand,
recurrent concepts which are used more frequently in both or in each set of national
documents. On the other hand, there is a number of concepts which become more or
less used at different times. The terminology used in each nation most probably reflects
the particular cultural context and most certainly reveal the political changes that occur
throughout the times.
 From an instrument and strategy analysis, two ideas deserve our attention: the first
one is the identification of no explicit references to an intercultural education neither in
framework laws nor in curriculum. This observation applies to both countries. Although
it is implicit in some way, as it has been pointed out, the agents –mainly teachers but
also students- are in a difficult and weak position if they are required to develop in an
educative context an intercultural education. Consequently, in both type of documents,
no strategies are found, which also makes the task for teachers difficult, since they are
not given specific actions for a suitable implementation.

The second idea is the fact that intercultural education is found mainly in projects
and programmes with a clear orientation, that is, the education of immigrants and ethnic
minorities. However, if education is given a special role in contributing to the
suppression of social, economic and cultural inequalities, what about the other students?