Media Literacy (ML) competences have been considered fundamental for citizenship in a world where media are increasingly present, being part of people's lives, anytime, anywhere. The most recent concerns that have arisen around disinformation and false news have further accentuated the need to develop media competences, considered essential to prepare citizens to read and critically analyse the information they receive and produce. However these competences are not developed in a natural way, it is necessary a structured work of Media Education (Buckingham, 2019). Among the institutions where this work can be promoted, the school appears as the main context, due to its goals of preparing for life and of providing equal opportunities to all students. In addition, its inclusion in higher education has also been encouraged, on the one hand, as it is considered a key competence for lifelong learning, on the other, because it is necessary that future teachers, but also future media and communication professionals, are prepared to promote ML in their professional contexts.
Based on these assumptions, we carried out an analysis of Portuguese curricula from pre-school to higher education in order to verify how ML is integrated in the curricular plans of these education levels. The analysis is based on the following documents:
- Pre-school education: analysis of curricular guidelines;
- Basic Education (1st and 2nd cycle) and Secondary Education: analysis of the programs of the various subjects;
- Higher Education: analysis of the curricular plans of Undergraduate and Master courses in Education and Communication, followed by an analysis of the curricular unit programs directly or indirectly related o ML.
The analysis is conducted by the following research questions:
- What kind of contents and objectives are contemplated? In what subjects? In what schooling years?
- What dimensions of ML - access and use, analysis and critical understanding, creation, production and expression - are contemplated and valued?
In this study we assume that teachers need guidelines to promote ML with their students. Without these guidelines, ML risks being pushed from one subject to another subject remaining a 'no-man's-land' (Pinto et al., 2011). The paper will draw a picture that characterizes the curricular integration of ML in Portugal in order to understand the opportunities that students have to develop media competences and what kind of competences. At the same time, we'll observe how this area is integrated in the initial training of future teachers as well as in the university training of future media professionals. This framework will serve as a basis for the assessment of media literacy competences that will be carried out under the project ‘COMEDIG – Media and Digital Competences in Portugal’ -Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032560| PTDC / CED-EDG / 32560/2017, co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the EU, through the ERDF and the I.P./MCTES Foundation for Science and Technology through national funds.
Buckingham, D. (2019). The Media Education Manifesto. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Pinto, M., Pereira, S., Pereira, L. & Ferreira, T. D. (2011) Educação para os Media em Portugal – Experiências, actores e contextos. Lisboa: ERC.