As escolas profissionais de Moçambique e o desenvolvimento sociocomunitário

Abstract

The present study aims a better understanding of the equation “education”, namely vocational education, and “development”, focusing on the “escolas profissionais”1 of Mozambique and their community contexts. It is known that these elements relate to each other, but there is no consensus about the way they relate, the variables that mediate this relation and the way they influence it. Several evidences show that the investment in education is a privileged way for the promotion of the development and, apart from the model of development adopted, it has been always given to education a prominent role. This was the case in the Millennium Development Goals outlined until 2015 and in the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030. On the other hand, this relationship between education and development is not linear and it is known that there is no cause-effect correspondence between the two elements. To better comprehend how and if the “escolas profissionais” of Mozambique are related to the development of the people and the communities, we went on field to visit ten schools, the communities where they are inserted, and to interact with 144 direct and indirect beneficiaries of the training, namely graduates, their families and key-actors of the community. We adopted a qualitative methodology, focused on the participants' voice, and we used, as data collection techniques, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and naturalistic observation. We find that most of the participants claim that the schools and the training they provide have triggered changes in the youth, in their families and in the community. Changes in employability, in expanding the range of opportunities and in a new sense of hope, as well as in the promotion of agency, of the capabilities and empowerment of the population, contributing to socio-communitarian development. However, some of the participants claim that they were expecting more changes than those that occurred.

Date of Award	24 Jul 2018
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	Joaquim Azevedo (Supervisor)