The Department of Social Sciences and
Education (henceforth designated as DSSE) is the permanent organisation
of the Institute of Education of the University of Minho for the
creation and transmission of knowledge in educational social sciences,
namely in the areas of Sociology of Education, Sociology of Training,
Sociology of Childhood, Educational Administration and Educational
Policy, constituting, as such, the basic unit of scientific-pedagogical
organisation and management of human and material resources in these
areas of knowledge.
The DSSE has as its mission the
development of innovative teaching projects, and of research and
interaction with society in its scientific areas, namely:
a) Sociology of Education, Sociology
of Training and Sociology of Childhood, as an object of analysis and
sociological reflection of institutions, contexts, processes and
practices of education, training and socialisation, including childhood,
all levels of the school system and, furthermore, other dimensions of
education throughout life;
b) School Organization and
Administration, which has as its aim the study, at the different levels
of analysis, of the structures and models of organisation and
administration of educational institutions, as well as of the directions
of political and organisational action in the context of the
democratisation of Portuguese society;
c) Educational Policy, the aim of
which is to approach educational policies at the various levels of
regulation (global, national and local) and to apply and recontextualise
them on the part of learners in the educational institutions.
The DSSE also intervenes in certain interface areas, namely:
a) Adult Education
b) Educational Associativism
c) Methodologies of Educational Research
d) Educational Assessment
e) Health Education
f) Training and Management of Human Resources
g) Social Service
h) Generic Studies
The DSSE carries out its activities in these varied contexts of
education and training and at all stages of human learning and
development.
