Abstract:

Teaching in higher education is a constant challenge, as it requires not only permanent updating, but also the search for and implementation of the most appropriate methodologies that enable the transmission of scientific and technical knowledge to students and their training to apply abstract knowledge to concrete situations in the future profession.

The Cultural Management unit of the Tourism, Cultural and Heritage Management degree, due to its multidisciplinary nature, requires the use of teaching methodologies that are capable of involving students in problem-solving and enabling them to intervene in the different areas of cultural management, namely: urban management and rehabilitation; management of built heritage; and management of cultural tourism.

Regions know that cultural heritage is one of their main assets in terms of differentiating themselves at regional, national and international level, so they seek to develop policies and projects that make the most of this heritage as a factor in differentiating themselves and promoting social and economic sustainability. Local efforts in this sector are still in their infancy, but there are already a number of successful initiatives (as most are not yet developed on an ongoing basis), such as the Coa Museum or the Caretos of Podence, which highlight the importance of defining ongoing cultural strategies that enable effective partnerships between the public sector, the private sector and the local community.

This is why this unit was taught (2023-2024) using the problem-solving and project-building methodology, promoting collaborative teaching and action research. The choice of this methodology sought to: increase students' critical thinking; foster creativity; apply scientific knowledge to real-world situations; and build students' confidence in their skills.
The project proposal we present in our paper, was developed as part of the Cultural Management unit’s assessment. Its main objective was to challenge the students to apply the knowledge they had acquired and to develop feasible proposals for the sustainability of the territory and profitability of all the available resources.

Therefore, in this paper we present not only the learning path taken throughout the semester, but also the results achieved. The cultural management project proposal for the Cambres Commercial Port that we intend to present succeeds in transforming this facility into a driving force for the development of the entire surrounding area and, through the action proposal, it will also contribute to tourism sustainability itself, creating synergies between the built cultural heritage and the natural heritage of the municipality of Lamego, located in the Douro demarcated wine region, a world heritage site, since 2001.

We also intend to demonstrate how the construction of the cultural management project contributed to consolidating the students' knowledge of the content covered and to increasing their confidence in preparing them for the labour market.

Keywords:

Problem-solving, Cultural management, higher education.