ABOUT ESE
Setúbal was the only district that didn’t have a Primary School or a Normal School for Childhood Educators. For this reason, the Higher School of Education (ESE) of the Polytechnic University of Setúbal (IPS) was not included in the initial network of Higher Schools of Education, which became part of what would be known as polytechnic higher education.
When it started its activity in 1985, the ESE was part of this network of institutions for the initial and ongoing training of teachers, which by then covered the whole country. The ESE began by intervening in the process of in-service professionalization and in-service training for primary and secondary school teachers.
On July 10 of that year, its first installation committee was appointed. We were then the IPS’s second school and were provisionally housed in the Fryxell Palace in the heart of the city.
The initial training courses for kindergarten teachers and elementary school teachers (bachelor’s degrees) began in 1987. We were at the Barreiros Factory at the time, which is now the IEFP premises.
In terms of the range of courses on offer, the so-called degree variants followed (1993), predominantly geared towards the second cycle of basic education: Portuguese-English, Portuguese-French, Physical Education (in 1990), Mathematics-Nature Sciences (1991), Visual and Technological Education and Music Education in Basic Education Meanwhile, in 2004, we created a unique course at national level – Early Childhood Education to Support the Bilingual Education of Deaf Children.
By then we were already in our final premises on the IPS Campus, inaugurated on June 29, 1993 by the then Prime Minister Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva. The building, designed by architect Siza Vieira, was awarded the Grand National Architecture Prize that year.
The need to respond to the training expectations of young people in the Setúbal region, the development of skills among its teaching staff in different fields, the demographic downturn and the recession in demand for teacher training courses led the ESE to a progressive process of turning to other scientific-professional areas and consequently opening new courses: Social Communication (1993), Translation and Interpreting (1996), Translation and Interpreting and Portuguese Sign Language (1997), Recreational Sports (2002), Animation and Sociocultural Intervention (2004) and Artistic Promotion and Heritage (2005).
With the first amendment to the Law on the Bases of the Education System (September 1997), it was possible to transform most of the ESE’s bachelor’s degree courses into bachelor’s degrees. In 2007, most of these courses were approved to be adapted to the model resulting from the Bologna Process, and six 1st cycle courses are still running under this model: Animation and Sociocultural Intervention, Social Communication, Sport, Basic Education, Artistic Promotion and Heritage and Translation and Interpretation of Portuguese Sign Language.
The ESE has developed Specialized Higher Studies Courses: Pedagogical and Administrative Management (1989), School Integration (1993), Specialized Complementary Training Course (Resource Centre), Complementary Training Courses for 1st Cycle Teachers – specialization in Portuguese (2001) and Mathematics (2003) and, in institutional partnership, Master’s Courses (Educational Sciences – Specialization in Early Childhood Education and Language Teaching).
In the meantime, it also plans to develop training opportunities, particularly at 2nd cycle level, in addition to offering a Master’s Degree in Teaching Music Education in Basic Education and a Master’s Degree in Teaching Visual and Technological Education in Basic Education, which have already been approved by MCTES.
In recent years, we have seen the relaunch of continuous training in the 1st cycle, an area with a strong tradition at this school, through the integration of national programs on the initiative of the Ministry of Education: Mathematics (later extended to the 2nd cycle as well), Basic ICT Skills, Experimental Science Teaching and Portuguese Teaching (PNEP).
Cooperation with Portuguese-speaking African countries has been a constant in the life of our school. We are currently running multi-year projects in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. Thanks to its exchange activities and projects in different European and African countries, the school has become a multicultural place where students and teachers from different cultural backgrounds live together, generating positive attitudes of openness to the world, cooperation and tolerance of social and ethnic-cultural differences.
This role has been proven in the many activities in which its students, teachers and non-teaching staff are involved, namely in the development of scientific, pedagogical and cultural events, as well as the existence of the ESE Students’ Association and Tuna Sadina (women’s tuna). It also has a Unit for Insertion into Active Life (UNIVA) in collaboration with the IEFP, operates as a Support Center for the Open University and hosts the Assessment Center for Portuguese as a Foreign Language (CAPLE).
In total, it welcomes around 800 students, including the ‘Over 23s’ and dozens of students from various European countries, as part of the Mobility Programs, of which Erasmus stands out.
The number of partnerships and cooperation protocols agreed with more than 90 institutions, including associations, schools, kindergartens, nurseries, hospitals, institutes, companies and town halls, among others, especially in the Setúbal region, but also attracting entities from other parts of the country, has greatly contributed to this result.
In the process of developing the school, there was a clear desire to create a new pedagogical reality, one that was humanized and centered on people, through attitudes and practices that valued the students, creating a favorable context for personal development and learning.
By way of example, students at the Setúbal School of Education can count on various services offered by the School and the IPS, in addition to those provided by the Social Action Services, particularly in the field of sport through the IPS Sports Club.
In an innovative approach, the ESE offers several internship periods and pedagogical practices in all its initial training courses (favoring alternating training), introduces Curricular Units that favor an entrepreneurial attitude in students and seeks to support their insertion into the labor market, using a Unit for Insertion into Active Life (UNIVA) in collaboration with the IEFP.
It is therefore a permanent concern of the ESE to promote education for citizenship, namely through the development of the capacity to intervene in school and society, media education and understanding of the current world, helping to train citizens with the necessary knowledge to fully exercise the profession they have chosen.
