From the official to the achieved curriculum, similarities and differences between Portugal and France

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of the core documents of recent revisions to Natural Sciences curricula in basic compulsory education in France and Portugal. Through a qualitative and interpretative method, the goal was to select and analyse documents collected between 2016 and 2018 and then to make a comparative analysis, supported by Guo’s learning model (2007), in order to highlight the official curriculum (the official perspective, what the teachers should teach), and the achieved curriculum (what is wished to be learnt) in the two countries. Using that model’s category variables, the results showed that the national context of the curricular decisions regarding scientific literacy takes into account the knowledge provided by international organizations in the official curriculum; however, the transposition of this knowledge to curricula differs in the definition of knowledge and skills. It is thus concluded that the elaboration of those documents – the common denominator in all classrooms – requires consistency between the two perspectives of the curriculum.