ULusófona researcher completes postdoctoral studies at Paris-Saclay University

Teresa Teixeira Lopo, integrated researcher at the CeiED – Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development, co-director of the OP.Edu – Observatory of Education and Training Policies and Assistant Professor at Lusófona University – Lisbon University Centre in the fields of Sociology of Education and Theory and Practice of Education, completed her postdoctoral studies at Paris-Saclay University.

Established in 2019, Paris-Saclay University succeeded Paris-Sud University and is currently ranked among the top 80 universities worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2026, 64th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 and 12th in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2024.

The postdoctoral contract, obtained by the researcher in 2024 through a competitive international call, enabled her to develop work with two complementary dimensions. The first consisted of a research project on the influence of the intergovernmental Bologna Process on the adoption of pedagogical innovation practices in higher education. More specifically, based on the hypothesis that the architecture of the Bologna Process favoured the establishment of a hegemonic paradigm of pedagogy, she sought to understand to what extent – and at which levels – Bologna’s discourses on pedagogical innovation take into account (or not) their appropriation by actors in practice.

The research plan, fully developed in France, followed a methodological approach of comparative case study, triangulating data from document analysis, institutional discourse analysis and semi-structured interview analysis. The final results will be presented over the course of next year at the Villebon-Georges Charpak Institute, which hosted the project. The second dimension of the postdoctoral research involved working alongside teams of teachers and researchers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), in the design, development and evaluation of exploratory and research projects in the field of pedagogical innovation, implemented across different programmes and study cycles at the University.

At the same time, the researcher also had the opportunity to organise and lead workshops and lectures on research methodologies in education, scientific publishing and topics related to pedagogical innovation, in an international, interdisciplinary environment with a strong emphasis on science.