About
PhD project: "Between discourses and practices: the role of the State in training child readers in a socially vulnerable area of Porto"
Reference: 2022.14534.BD
Scientific area: Sociology
Supervisor: Natália Azevedo (FLUP, IS-UP)
Timeline: September 2022-August 2026
Abstract: The project aims to study the State’s policy practices aimed at promoting reading among children. The core of the analysis is limited to the set of discourses and practices of the State coordinated for the implementation and development of the National Reading Plan (PNL – Plano Nacional de Leitura) in the period from 2006 to 2022, in which the target audience is children in a school context. Based on an inductive qualitative methodology, the aim is to develop a case study focusing on children in the 1st cycle of basic education enrolled in the Alexandre Herculano school cluster, in order to understand the response of the State and the school in specific realities and contexts, particularly in areas characterised by social vulnerability. This limitation is justified by the fact that the school cluster is located in a region with more pronounced intra-urban disparities than other areas, with significant drop-out rates and a ‘brain-drain’ of teachers, in particular in the parish of Bonfim, in the municipality of Porto. Moreover, the first phase of the PNL prioritises students in 1st cycle of education because they are in a phase of learning, developing and perfecting their reading skills. It is therefore considered appropriate to understand the obstacles to reading education, to promote the sociological visibility of stigmatised spaces, and to propose adequate solutions to the problems faced in this area of research.
Keywords: Sociology of Culture; Reading; Public Policies; Social Inequalities; Education.
