Summary
Cláudio da Silva is a doctoral candidate in Educational Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal, and a Ph.D. fellow at the Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto. Originally from Brazil, he holds a master’s degree in social education, development and local dynamics from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, as well as bachelor’s degrees in biology and pedagogy.
His academic and professional trajectory brings together education, ethnographic research, environmental education and community-based pedagogical practices. He has coordinated educational projects and environmental education workshops for teachers in Brazil and Papua New Guinea. While working as a teacher for Brazilian immigrant children in Japan, he developed interdisciplinary research projects with his students, which resulted in the production of short books and community educational videos.
His current doctoral research is based in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, and examines intercultural dialogue between schools and Indigenous communities, with particular attention to the recognition of Indigenous knowledge and community-based forms of learning within school contexts. As part of this research, he facilitated the collaborative production of Voices of New Ireland: Kun and Nochi Wisdom, a community-based educational book developed with elders, and community leaders and students from Langenia Primary School and the surrounding Kun and Nochi communities. The project explores how schools can become spaces for dialogue between formal education and the knowledge systems sustained in community life, oral histories, local languages, cultural practices and relationships with territory.
His research is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), a government agency that supports science, technology and innovation under the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education.