An Analysis of Competence Development in Portuguese Geography Textbooks

The objective of this paper is to present certain results of my doctoral research, concerning the application of “Competence Pedagogy” in the teaching of geography in Portugal, particularly an analysis of Portuguese geography textbooks in order to improve our understanding of how they incorporate, or do not incorporate, this new pedagogical approach. It presents, therefore, a theoretical introduction to these issues, a description of the research methodology based on a typology of textbook analysis from a Portuguese research project – “Textbooks, E-textbooks and Students Activities”. Databases constructed in FileMaker for textbook analysis are described and examined through content analysis and statistical analyses. Finally, some implications of the research results are presented. This article also seeks to stimulate the debate about pedagogic approaches in geography textbooks, to describe and evaluate the current situation in Portuguese geography textbooks, and specially to stimulate the international debate about curricula directed at competence development in geography teaching.