Learning Ecologies: From Past Generations to Current Higher Education

Abstract

This paper reports on the ongoing establishment of a basis for a re-consideration of the way the contributions to knowledge, culture and social fabric of aging Portuguese scholars may be recognized, communicated and activated in future contexts. The project stems from an analysis of the professional life and work of Portuguese scholars graduated at the School of Fine Arts of Porto (ESBAP), during the 1960s and 1970s, a period marked by the country's political Revolution of April 25, 1974, with deep socio-cultural repercussions. The analysis was performed following semi-structured interviews carried out with informants who attended the School to later become professors. Their testimonies reveal a contrast in learning from being a student and being a lecturer; they provide valuable insights into their personal creative journeys in light of their commitment to education and how their efforts have helped maintain related formal and tacit streams of traditional knowledge, within rapidly changing cultural and socio-political environments.