Exploring E-portfolios: Illuminating Accounts of the Pedagogical Innovation Training Programme at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu

Every educational institution strives for pedagogical excellence, driven by the goal of providing the most effective and impactful learning experiences to its students. This is no different at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV) and other Polytechnic Institutes participating in a Pedagogical Innovation Training Programme developed within a consortium committed to enriching educational methodologies and tools. There is evidence that innovative pedagogical methodologies lead to enhanced student engagement, foster meaningful interactions, promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and ultimately better academic achievement. This study focuses on the training course on pedagogical innovation offered to the teaching staff from IPV and vocational schoolteachers from the region, by examining their reflective portfolios. We aim at illuminating the impact and efficacy of the initiative in fostering active methodologies and innovative pedagogical tools, employing qualitative analysis to uncover the nuanced perceptions of the IPV participants in the six editions of the programme (2021-2023). The findings reveal that they value active methodologies, intercultural and multidisciplinary collaboration, and the integration of industry- aligned skills development, even if we encounter accounts of challenges faced during the implementation process of the training course. Ultimately, this study contributes to assessing the initiative’s impact and underscores the pivotal role of innovative teaching methodologies in striving for educational excellence. In light of the findings, policy recommendations include encouraging continued investment in pedagogical innovation training programmes, supporting interdisciplinary collaboration, fostering industry alignment, and addressing implementation challenges to ensure the effectiveness of such initiatives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Forging a space for dialogue and negotiation in modern picture books by Melanie Florence

Canadian children’s literature has a relatively short history, which is not surprising because Canadian literature itself is a recent and problematic category, struggling for a definition and identity of its own. The lack of national homogeneity is reflected in both CanLit and its counterpart for children, and rather than being a weakness, the multitude of voices that inhabit the Canadian territory has become its essence and strength. Lately, we have noticed a growing interest and market demand for picture books by Indigenous voices. Melanie Florence is one such voice, and she honours her past by bringing to the fore the inescapable dark weight of collective tragedies such as the residential school system and the disappearance and murder of Aboriginal women and girls, a hidden national crisis. In this article, we aim at getting to know and help readers discover Missing Nimâmâ and Stolen Words by this new picture book writer, who is speaking up and voicing First Nations’ concerns, bringing back memories, but also forging a space for dialogue and negotiation, a space where text and illustration are combined and provide a harmonious whole. In this space, difference and binarisms do not result in dualism, but in highly synergistic relationships.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chimamanda Adichie, Mia Couto e o combate às expectativas de género

Em A coisa à volta do teu Pescoço, a escritora nigeriana Chimamanda Adichie dá vida e voz a personagens femininas várias que, numa amostra por conveniência, cingiremos às presentes nas histórias “Cela Um” e “A Historiadora Obstinada”. As questões de género, noutro canto de África, são tratadas por Mia Couto, um feminista convicto. É na senda de um novo rumo para a garantia dos direitos das mulheres, que analisaremos a representatividade feminina em contos selecionados de Estórias Abensonhadas, como na “Esteira do Parto”, “O Perfume”, “Os infelizes cálculos da felicidade”, “Joãotónio, no enquanto” e “Os olhos fechados do diabo do advogado”. Tendo como pano de fundo estes autores, procuraremos analisar 1. as formas como a mulher é representada nas narrativas em estudo e 2. quão mais (in)felizes as personagens femininas se tornam quando não sentem o peso das expectativas de género.: In A coisa à volta do teu Pescoço, the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie brings life and voice to various female characters, but, in a convenience sampling, we will stick to those in the short stories “Cela Um” and “A Historiadora Obstinada”. Gender issues, in another part of Africa, are dealt with by Mia Couto, a staunch feminist. It is in the quest for a new direction ensuring women’s rights that we will analyse the feminine representativeness in selected short stories in Estórias Abensonhadas, such as “Esteira do Parto”, “O Perfume”, “Os infelizes cálculos da felicidade”, “Joãotónio, no enquanto” and “Os olhos fechados do diabo do advogado”. Taking these authors as a reference, we will try to analyse 1. the ways in which women are represented in the narratives under study and 2. how much more (un)happy female characters become when they do not feel the weight of gender expectations.En A coisa à volta do teu Pescoço, la escritora nigeriana Chimamanda Adichie da vida y voz a varios personajes femeninos pero, en una muestra para mayor comodidad, nos ceñiremos a los presentes en los cuentos “Cela Um” y “A Historiadora Obstinada”. Las cuestiones de género, en otro punto de África, son tratadas por Mia Couto, un feminista declarado. En el camino de una nueva dirección para la garantía de los derechos de la mujer, analizaremos la representatividad femenina en cuentos seleccionados de Estórias Abensonhadas, como “Esteira do Parto”, “O Perfume”, “Os infelizes cálculos da felicidade”, “Joãotónio, no enquanto” y “Os olhos fechados do diabo do advogado”. Con el apoyo de estos autores, intentaremos analizar 1. las formas en que las mujeres están representadas en las narraciones estudiadas y 2. cuánto más (in)felices se vuelven los personajes femeninos cuando no sienten el peso de las expectativas de género.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In her hands: navigating [sexual] identity and gender roles in a Portuguese graphic novel for young adults by Joana Estrela

Visual narratives, such as graphic novels and comic books, are powerful forms of literature that use verbal and pictorial modes, in intersemiotic complementarity, making them an effective tool to tackle social issues, namely to explore hidden or sensitive topics in a thought-provoking, entertaining, and inspiring way. This is the case in the last graphic novel published by a young Portuguese writer and illustrator for children and young adults, Joana Estrela, the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. In this study, then, we intend to focus on Raquel, the protagonist in Pardalita, who takes her future into her hands and ventures to navigate the waters of self-discovery, crossing prejudice and challenging gender role stereotypes. Through her theatre group, she enters a third space that promotes inclusivity and empowers individuals regardless of gender. By analysing the multimodality that characterises this book, we come to realise the synergistic and transformative potential that visual narratives hold.CIDEIinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

‘Now open for action!’ – A real-world challenge project developed at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu

Higher Education Institutions are committed to developing innovative pedagogical practices that open the doors to collaboration between students, who are seen as talents; teaching staff, who become their facilitators; and partner entities that present them with societal challenges, in different fields, and call for intercultural, multidisciplinary, proactive, multi-stakeholder action. This is the setting of the virtual learning environments that the Demola Portugal Initiative has embraced and cherished in a network of 14 Portuguese Polytechnic Institutions. Our study focuses on a real-world challenge project that was part of the first batch developed at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, together with ACERT, a cultural and recreational association from the region that struggled with a fall in activity caused by the pandemic. Using design thinking and co-creation, a team of six students came up with a few solutions that would make young generations reconnect and participate in cultural activities. The aim of this paper is, thus, to present a case study that portrays how Higher Education Institutions are being reframed to become more innovative, humanising and transformative spaces that extend beyond the classroom walls to scaffold learning through meaningful tasks and partnerships. With this study, we may conclude that this project empowered the team and made them feel like true change-makers, whilst developing skills for their future that they can put into practice in the workplace.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

From Teachers’ Innovative Practices to Students’ Co-Creation: A Glimpse of the Project “Link Me Up – 1000 Ideias”

Higher Education Institutions are, more than ever, open to innovative practices, and nowadays the triple helix of University, Industry and Government is taking place through the implementation of projects such as “Link Me Up – 1000 Ideias”. This project, funded by COMPETE, was created as a network bringing together thirteen Portuguese Polytechnic Institutes to promote entrepreneurship among students, called talents, in academia. In a multidisciplinary approach, a cocreation team of 4-6 students, working together with organisation partners and using teacher’s innovative practices, explore a future-oriented challenge in order to design solutions, ideas and future scenarios, in an 8-week process that aims to empower students to create their own innovative companies or projects and to help them to be prepared for the transition to the world of work, developing soft skills that are required in our competitive society. This project is linked to another, entitled “Learning based on co-creation processes,” funded by POCH, in a partnership with DEMOLA Global, which provides teachers (in this process, they become facilitators) with innovative methodologies that are then operationalised when implementing co-creation challenges. In this study, we aim at presenting the “Link Me Up” project from the point of view of students from the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu and local organisations, by a) reflecting upon the questionnaires applied to students and companies to assess their degree of satisfaction with their participation in the project, identifying key areas enhanced by the experience. Additionally, b) we will look at the reports written by the group of students as they summarise the work developed in partnership with companies throughout eight intensive weeks. We will conclude, not with a retrospective view, although it is important to look at the past to build the present, but with the perspective of a future that is collaborative, reflective, critical and increasingly creative.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Learning based on co-creation processes: a glimpse of the (Demola) Pedagogical Innovation Training course at IPV

: The development of technologies, services and products in our increasingly global, interconnected, and digital world implies the training of future professionals capable of solving challenges, embracing diversity, and co-constructing innovative and disruptive scenarios. Higher Education (HE) has been adapting to these times of change and, consequently, the academy has started to open doors to partnerships with local organisations, in synergies that go beyond internships to include research and a modernisation agenda, with clear benefits for all the stakeholders and with positive effects on the national economy. Thus, pedagogical practices need to be updated, and Demola model aims at contributing to innovation processes by fostering academia-industry collaboration. In this study, we will focus on the first edition (January-June 2021) of the project entitled “Learning based on co-creation processes,” funded by POCH, developed in a partnership with Demola Global, and in close connection to another project, Link Me Up, integrated in a consortium of 13 Polytechnic Institutes, including the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV). Specifically, we will focus on 1) the Demola methodology and tools used by the participants in the Pedagogical Innovation Training course at IPV, Viseu, Portugal; 2) the questionnaires applied to the team of IPV trainees/facilitators; and 3) the reports they wrote at the end of the process to a) analyse the profile of the teaching staff seeking alternatives to improve their teaching practice; b) assess their perception of the Demola pedagogical innovation course, and c) the implications on their future practices. Our findings reveal that this project that offers pedagogical innovation is highly valued by the participants at IPV, as they feel they are more open: to collaboration within and outside the academia; to use innovative tools and platforms; to acknowledge the need to accept and manage uncertainty and to facilitate societal challenges in multidisciplinary teams of (inter/)national students.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O Trickster revisitado como corporização de um espaço liminar em Laughing with the Trickster: On Sex, Death, and Accordions, de Tomson Highway / The Trickster revisited as the embodiment of a liminal space in Laughing with the Trickster: On Sex, Death, and Accordions, by Tomson Highway

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We'd rather be 'red' than dead: embracing one's diference through selected Native Canadian fiction for children and young adults

Native Canadian fiction for children and young adults can be viewed as an important means of cultural transmission and socialisation that contributes, to a great extent, to a community‟s collective identity. Here begins the first problem posed to us: trying to define the concept of culture and to examine in what way(s) oral heritage forms a part of it. Then, some other questions arise because in Canada, the haven of multiple cultures and ethnicities, debates about national identity re-surface repeatedly and continue to haunt the collective imagiNation of the country. Finding out the place of Native peoples and their literatures is even a greater difficulty, due to the legacy of colonialism. Despite the difficulties, new voices are currently being authorised as Canadian, and difference has now turned into the distinctive feature of the national literature. Jeannette Armstrong, an Okanagan writer, artist and educator, is well aware of the strength that stems from this variety of cultures and, in her works, she advocates for a plurality of voices within and outside of her community. Using Armstrong‟s fiction for children and young adults, and looking briefly at some other works by Tomson Highway, George Littlechild, Thomas King and C. J. Taylor, this dissertation examines how literature can be read as a site of resistance and/or of cross-cultural exchange connecting diverse people of different nationalities, generations, languages, religions, genders and social conditions.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)Asociación Española de Estudios Canadiense

Topoanálise e a celebração da diferença em “O gato e o escuro” e em “O beijo da palavrinha”, de Mia Couto

O reconhecimento e a valorização da diversidade como oportunidade e fonte de aprendizagem, respeitando o multiculturalismo das sociedades atuais, é uma necessidade cada vez mais visível. A leitura de textos literários de expressão portuguesa oferece grandes potencialidades para ajudar a compreender que o reconhecimento da diferença do Outro desempenha um papel crucial na promoção da cidadania. Consequentemente, o seu estudo pode ser fonte de enriquecimento na construção intercultural e assumir grande importância como forma de partilha e de representação de espaços reais e/ou fantásticos, conhecidos e/ou desconhecidos para os alunos.Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu