SCHOOL KNOWLEDGE OF BOTANY IN TEXTBOOKS OF NATURAL SCIENCES IN PORTUGAL. ANALYSIS OF ITS CURRICULAR STATUTE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION (1900-2000)

This research has as main aim to understand the place that Botany has been given in textbooks of Natural Sciences in Primary School Education in the last century in Portugal. In an attempt of interpreting the shifts in Botany content approach, we have studied didactical books for the referred cycle of Basic Education according to eleven principles: Form; Kingdoms; Classification; Organs; Roots, Stem; Leaf; Flower; Fruit; Reproduction; and Dimensions. This study, based on a qualitative methodological approach, is supported by content analysis and the establishment of a posteriori categories as well as cluster analysis, by dendograms construction was intended to promote the confrontation of first hand sources – textbooks – in what contents, pedagogical and didactical orientations, educational and curricular policies recommendations are concerned as well as educational and scientific values suggested.
Textbooks are of great importance to school and teaching especially in the conformation of forms and contents of pedagogical knowledge, including aspects related to the sequence and rhythm of the transmission of knowledge through, for instance, activities by which it is promoted and evaluation forms of knowledge acquired, by this way developing important pedagogical functions. Therefore, textbooks can allow the access to the knowledge of pedagogical ideology it is based, the way the teaching and learning process that happens in the classroom is understood and the role is developed by pupils and teachers.
Data analysis shows that changes in naming the teaching of Natural Sciences have occurred; and in contents approached that have assumed different relevance through times. Therefore, we may find the de-complexification, the dichotomisation, the de-conceptualisation, and the conservation of several contents of Botany distributed by different dimension of Botany namely the notional dimension, the morphological dimension, the functional dimension and the ecological dimension.