From Theory to Practice: the Republican Turn in the Teaching of Zoology at the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon (1880-1920)

Description

This presentation focuses on the restructuring of the teaching of zoology, following the conversion of the Polytechnic School of Lisbon into Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon, in 1911, in the context of the reform of Portuguese higher education implemented by the Republican regime that overthrew the Portuguese Monarchy, in 1910. The Polytechnic School, a mid-nineteenth-century institution for higher education designed by the Liberals to provide preparatory courses on science and technology for the nascent political, administrative and economic elites, underwent considerable changes, even though the new Faculty continued to provide preparatory courses to students destined to the Faculties of Medicine and schools of engineering. In the case of zoology, not only were created new courses, but the long-sought effort of organizing a zoological laboratory was also achieved, an orientation which contrasts with the mainly theoretical approach adopted in the teaching of this discipline, prior to 1911. This shift from theory to practice seems to have been driven by both the Republican intention to modernize the teaching of medicine and the willingness of zoology professors to establish modern biology courses that would give prestige and foster the autonomy of the new Faculty of Sciences in the context of Portuguese higher education.

Period	18 Apr 2011
Event title	International Congress on the History of European Universities: Challenges and Transformations
Event type	Conference
Location	Lisbon, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International