For the 2024-2026 edition, which began in September 2024, the MCED has been organized into four Thematic Areas:

Educational and School Administration: This thematic area of the Master's Degree in Educational Sciences aims to promote the training of students and the specialized training of teachers in educational administration, with a particular focus on knowledge of studies on educational policies, administration and school management, from a systemic and critical perspective that allows to understand the processes of governance, autonomy and democratic management of educational organizations, especially schools. It starts from a heuristic way of problematizing and enunciating the studies, and is structured around a critical educational intent supported by the contributions of three theoretical axes: Paradigms in Educational Administration; Educational Policies, Democratization and Decentralization; Autonomy and Governance. The aim is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to: i) problematize theories, processes and practices of educational administration and management; ii) understand and problematize processes of autonomy and democratic governance; iii) design and develop research/intervention projects in the fields of educational administration and management, based on participatory and decision-making processes capable of influencing educational policies and school practices.
This area is focused on intervention and research in educational administration contexts such as local authorities, inter-municipal communities, schools and school groups, training centers of school associations, regional and development coordination commissions, among other educational organizations.
The first year of the curriculum is in the process of being accredited by the CCPFCP as Specialized Training in Educational Administration for teachers with at least 5 years' teaching service

Art Education: In recent decades, the field of Art Education has come to confront the complexity that characterizes the relationship between the artistic and the educational. If, on the one hand, these relationships constitute a critical cartography of the epistemological and ontological conflicts that cross artistic and educational action in contemporary times, on the other hand, they present us with the need to review our acquired heritage of knowledge, whose cultural, academic, aesthetic and political devices naturalize an idea of Art Education as a field of application of knowledge produced about art and for education. Nowadays, Art Education is confronted - and confronts us - with the universe of injunctions and dichotomies founded by modern Western reason, whose Eurocentric and utilitarian orders are at the heart of the architecture idealized for modern formal education. Therefore, the object of Art Education presupposes the definition of a scale whose place is the criticism of our dominant forms of knowledge and the discriminatory practices and power that we use, in any order - racist, sexist, identitarian, specists. Faced with this situation, what are the possibilities for us to inhabit an Art Education whose logic is now less challenged by the totalitarianism of imperial and disciplinary forms, but rather by what the singularity of its experience can mean? In the end, what can our relationship with education and artistic practices do?
Bearing these premises in mind, this field, in addition to aiming to provide, through the dissertation, plural research paths in the light of the specificities of this field, seeks to build relationships with institutions and contexts of cultural action within which students can carry out actions of education and artistic mediation, accompanying projects and dynamics that are present in educational services and/or artistic education programs with communities, either through a professional internship in these contexts, or through the design and implementation of projects aimed at intervention in the field of arts in education. Experimentation, transience, rehearsal, and even indeterminism, emerge in this field as the praxis of an investigative process, in which the boundaries between the practical element and the written element of research are annulled. This annulment emerges in favor of a knowledge that is linked to both the sensorial and the singular, in defense of emancipatory, intersubjective relationships that are socially committed to criticism.

Socio-educational Intervention and Mediation: In a dynamic and multifaceted world, the need for professionals capable of catalyzing change to create more inclusive and resilient communities is becoming increasingly urgent in the 21st century. Faced with this challenging scenario, the field of Socio-educational Intervention and Mediation emerges as a pertinent and substantial pathway for those who wish to play a key role in promoting human, educational and social development. This field aims to acquire the knowledge and skills to work in the area of intervention and mediation in various socio-educational contexts. In this regard, students should be able to:

• Act as agents promoting change and transformation in different social and educational contexts;
• Mobilize mediation and intervention strategies to meet the specific needs of the communities in which they work;
• Explore innovative approaches to socio-educational intervention, offering theoretical and practical tools to tackle complex challenges in education and society in general;
• Develop skills to design, implement and evaluate socio-educational intervention and mediation programs/projects, with a focus on strengthening vulnerable communities and groups;
• To offer theoretical and methodological resources in the field of mediation and socio-educational intervention;
• To develop skills for professional intervention and mediation, covering a wide range of socio-educational contexts.

With an interdisciplinary focus, this field can be an asset for professionals from different areas who wish to broaden their knowledge and skills in order to play an active role in building more inclusive and resilient communities. It is also a proposal aimed at deepening the training and professionalization of Educational Science graduates. This field can provide knowledge for intervention with children, young people and adults in different contexts, namely:

• School groups (student and family support offices, health promotion and education support offices, technical-pedagogical advice, ...);
• Local authorities and inter-municipal communities (education, youth and social action departments, social and educational projects with the community);
• Socio-educational services of public and/or private institutions or organizations (working in the areas of culture, leisure and the environment, health and well-being, sport);
• Local development associations and other civil society organizations working in the field of social and community intervention;
• Services/Organizations for the Prevention, Support and Inclusion of Children and Young People at Risk;
• Training institutions (training companies, Qualifica Centers, public bodies in the field of training);
• Social support institutions for the elderly (in the field of socio-cultural animation).

Teacher Training and Supervision: challenges of the past, present and future: O domínio de aprofundamento dirige-se à formação de professores - de que a supervisão é parte integrante – e seus desafios atuais. A temática considera a supervisão (entendida nas suas diversas modalidades) na formação inicial, na formação contínua e no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores, na sua articulação com o sistema educativo, os sistemas de formação e a organização escolar. Na organização e no desenvolvimento curricular, consideram-se experiências, políticas e projetos do passado e do presente, para pensar novos futuros da formação de professores. A problematização terá por base uma perspetiva ecológica das identidades profissionais e por eixo central um núcleo constituído pela prática e o conhecimento profissional associado à investigação e à reflexão.

This thematic area of study focuses on teacher training - of which supervision is an integral part - and its current challenges. The area considers supervision (understood in its various forms) in initial training, in-service training and in the professional development of teachers, in its articulation with the educational system, training systems and school organization. In curricular organization and development, past and present experiences, policies, and projects are considered in order to think about new futures for teacher training. The problematization will be based on an ecological perspective of professional identities and the central axis will be practice and professional knowledge associated with research and reflection.

This thematic area is destined for teachers (specializing in pedagogical supervision and training of trainers), graduates in educational sciences and other graduates, especially graduates in teaching and social sciences and humanities. The first year gives access to a Master's degree (postgraduate). The two years of the Master's give access to the Master's degree, which can be accessed through Project, Internship or Dissertation modalities. The first year of the curriculum is in the process of being accredited by the CCPFCP as Specialized Training in Pedagogical Supervision and Training of Trainers for teachers with at least 5 years of teaching service.

For the 2023-2025 edition, starting in September 2023, the Master’s degree in Education Sciences is organized in the following domains

Education, Gender, Body and Violence: Increasingly, violence is a social and educational problem, which undertakes gender features, currently inacceptable. In a historical perspective, the social construction of gender is being conceptualized in a more complex way, exceeding the biologist and binary conceptions of the feminine and the masculine. Furthermore, the modernity heritage overestimated the mind in Education, establishing a dichotomy with the Body, which is challenged by current knowledge. Diverse forms of violence against women, children and elderly people constitute signs of dehumanization and their acceptance eventually pollutes all dimensions of social life. The awareness of victims suffering — which has been silenced until recently — is the result of social movements, cultural transformations, research and greater ethical concerns have lead to the production of public policies for its combatting.

All violence has a bodily dimension, as the body is the locus of lived experience(s) demanding from Education new perspectives and new stances for educational action. Sciences of Education have been producing knowledge and training in a systematic way, evidenced by post-graduations (Prevention of Gender Violence in the School and in the Family), sciences education masters specializations (Risk, Vulnerability and Violence 2010-11; Gender, Education and Citizenship 2006-09). In the social and historical perspective, the specializations of Cultural Heritage (2005-07; 2012-14) and on Culture (2016-18) as well as in Intercultural Dialogue (2006-08) have highlighted the emergency of the body in education ether as object of sanitizing (the hygiene social movement) and medical care, or as strengthening and body invigoration of the population, as well as the locus of presentation and re-presentation of the individual, the social, and the symbolic.

In this specialization, the focus will be a liberatory interdisciplinary educational approach taking into consideration gender, embodiment and violence, crossing historical, anthropological, sociological, cultural studies and feminist studies perspectives.

Education, Politics and Democracy: Youth participation and citizenship: Education is key to build democracy, and it continues to be a significant predictor of civic and political participation. In recent years, scenarios of economic, political and climate crisis have brought challenges to democracy in the form of threats to social and intergenerational justice. These threats require an effort to imagine new relationships between education and politics. On the one hand, youth groups are among the most vulnerable to political marginalization, deepened in the intersection with dimensions of socio-educational inequality and instrumentalized by discourses of populism and disinformation. On the other hand, youth groups practice citizenship in increasingly broader ways, individually and collectively, on the street and at school, in social movements and social media, through visual and performative formats. It is, therefore, crucial to link different contexts where new political and educational imaginaries emerge.

This domain is based on research developed at CIIE, around political education in formal, non-formal and informal contexts, based on interdisciplinary efforts, participatory approaches, and mixed methods. Specifically, its aim is to potentiate the acquisition of knowledge and skills that enable students to:

• understand the transformations in youth political cultures, the role of social media in politicization and the development of the interrelationship between education and politics – at everyday, associative and institutional levels;
• investigate political action, offline and online, as a pedagogical and democratic learning experience, with implications for problematizing education practices in activism and forms of activism in education;
• develop intervention projects that deepen the connection between different educational contexts (schools, NGOs, municipalities, social movements) and promote the participation and the socio-political and educational empowerment of groups at risk of exclusion;
• critically assess the potentialities and limits of the school as an arena for democracy, considering the curriculum and the practices of education for citizenship at the interface with the community;
• design socio-educational strategies that mobilize digital tools and facilitate the integration of youth agendas by institutional policies, local authorities, and civil society organizations.

Evaluation and Quality Assessment in Education: Policies and practices: Evaluation and quality assessment have been assuming a great centrality and relevance in the political coordination of educational systems and in institutional strategies, with impacts on educational processes, at European, national and institutional levels. In order to respond to the needs for specialised training in this field, this domain is organised around evaluation policies and practices in education. Firstly, the focus is on the analysis of evaluation policies, institutional and pedagogical assessment of quality in education as political technologies. Secondly, it takes on the evaluation in education at different levels of the educational system, institutions and educational evaluation itself, with emphasis on its practical aspects, particularly at the level of reconfiguration of professional intervention.
The domain is aimed at students, teachers and other professionals aiming at the acquisition of knowledge and skills that enable them to act at the level of project design and development of evaluation processes and institutional and pedagogical management in different areas of the educational field.

More specifically, it is intended that students acquire knowledge and skills that enable them to

• reflect and investigate policies, structures and processes of evaluation and institutional and pedagogical management of quality;
• contribute to the development of reflexivity of professional practices, namely in the areas of international, institutional and educational evaluation
• integrate structures and processes of educational quality management and external/internal monitoring, auditing and control.

Students will be given the possibility to get involved in research projects in the areas of evaluation studies and the option for the internship will be supported by the insertion in institutional contexts, in order to favour the initiation to autonomous professional practice and integration in the professional environment.

School,Participation and Digital Technologies: The challenges posed by the digital transition are being felt in the most diverse spheres of society, causing changes in policies and contexts of education/training, with visible effects on the conditions of participation and educational intervention inside and outside schools. These effects are felt, on the one hand, through the exponential increase in the quantity and variety of information and digital resources available, the growing possibilities of personalization of learning environments and situations, as well as the diversity of means of collaboration and communication inside and outside the classroom. On the other hand, the phenomenon of digital exclusion coexists, as a consequence of both the lack of access to digital technologies and the lack of skills for their critical use and of equitable conditions for participation in society. The domain "School, Participation and Digital Technologies" is inserted in the confluence of theoretical and practical knowledge of the intervention areas: "School Education, Participation and Digital Technologies", in a proposal that aims to promote the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills that allow students to:

• position themselves critically about policies, programs and challenges of the digital transition and participation in schools and in other educational contexts;
• design practices with digital technologies in educational action;
• develop research/intervention projects at school and in other educational contexts.