Master thesis presented by Teresa Salomé Alves da Mota, 2001

Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the history of Portuguese Geology between 1947 and 1974 through the analysis of the textbooks used in secondary education. Underlying the choice of this research topic was the assumption that the way in which a science is transmitted is of paramount importance to the recruitment and education of its future professionals. In effect, it is through scientific teaching that habits of thought, scientific practices, and traditions are established and passed on to new generations.

The period under consideration covers the decline of the dictatorial regime, which ruled Portugal for about 50 years, the Estado Novo. The teaching system was one of the pillars of the dictatorship and a powerful means of ideological indoctrination However, the slow but deep transformations undergone by Portuguese society despite its many contradictions were to have an impact on the educational structure. It is in this social and educational context that the features of Portuguese Geology emerging from the analysis of textbooks used in secondary education should be understood.

The analysis of the textbooks took into consideration the following aspects: the general characteristics of the manuals; the way in which the various topics of Geology were addressed; the practical dimension of geological teaching; the illustrations with a geological content; the way in which geological theories were presented and dealt with; the understanding of Geology as a science and of its history.

This analysis revealed that Geology was perceived as a part of natural history, a special emphasis being given to its descriptive dimension, especially in topics pertaining to descriptive crystallography and mineralogy. Causal interpretations, more general theoretical questions and even the historical aspects of Geology as a reconstruction of earth's history were only addressed at a very late stage of secondary education. The illustrations with a geological content show similar features. The most typical visual representations such as charts, side views, stratigraphical columns and illustrations with a causal or temporal character were almost totally absent. Also the practical activities were essentially circumscribed to observation, description and identification of objects and had a very limited scope.

The way in which geological theories were addressed in the manuals was marked to a great extent by a monolithic and non-problematic attitude, which can be inscribed in an empirical inductive and somehow positivistic perspective. By assuming a clear-cut demarcation between the natural and the social worlds, scientific knowledge was envisaged as a process through which man unveils unequivocally the "mysteries of Nature," and reaches the truth. The few pages generally devoted to the history of Geology are undoubtedly an example of this perspective of science from which individual "discoveries" made by "geniuses" were singled out.

Despite the fact the Geology is not a science which could be easily ideologically manipulated by the Estado Novo, the fact of the matter is that its teaching was perfectly in tune with the values and educational practices of the dictatorial regime. In the early stages of secondary education, the few geological topics addressed were explicitly used as a means of ideological indoctrination. In addition, the teaching system was governed by an elitist principle of selection as shown by the different approaches to Geology adopted in its various stages. The kind of topics, their content and associated teaching strategies as well as their outdated character and ideological overtones were in accordance with the Portuguese political regime. Despite the changes undergone by Portuguese society between 1947 and 1974, the teaching of Geology, and more generally the teaching of science, did not contribute significantly to this slow process, nor did it echoed these transformations.