Asymmetries of cross-national regulatory laws on Heritage Education

Abstract

Within the framework of research stays, an analysis of curricular regulations on heritage education in three countries: Portugal, Mexico and Spain was carried out, focusing on evidence of similarities and differences in the laws of the countries compared. The main objective is to discover what are the conceptualisations of each country on heritage education according to their educational regulations, what is understood by heritage, as well as to analyse which laws provide for the practice of this discipline and how are the main differences between them. Comparisons are made with the official documents that govern the Education Systems and that prescribe the heritage education curriculum for Spanish Compulsory Secondary Education and its age counterparts (11 to 16 years old) in Portugal and Mexico. An exploratory sequential mixed method is used, with a first phase of bibliometric analysis using VOSwiever software, in which the categories of ethical analysis are extracted, and a second phase of content analysis of the laws themselves, based on a constructivist and post-constructivist worldview of reality. As results, we found similarities, such as the approach to the concept of heritage, which is very close to that of culture and art that the three countries use in their education and some of the subjects that help to mainstream heritage education, such as History, Language or Art; at the same time, there are numerous asymmetries or differences with regard to another series of subjects, differences in the courses in which they are dealt with, asymmetries that have to do with the passing of the history of the countries and their regulatory changes over the years. There is a need for future discussion on a number of factors such as the role of teachers, their initial training, teaching practice, the students of the new century and the architects of the laws.

Keywords: Comparative Education; Curriculum; High Schools; Heritage education; eduational law