Vania Camacho, former postdoctoral researcher at INET-md, and Alfonso Benetti, integrated researcher at INET-md, are the authors of the article “Piano pedagogy in Portugal: a discursive analysis from the perspective of Higher Education teachers”, published in open access in the journal Per Musi.
This research, based on the analysis of a collection of oral and written documents related to the piano within higher education institutions in Portugal, aims to foster the understanding, documentation, and dissemination of contexts, trends, and contemporary practices connected with piano pedagogy. The findings are based on interviews conducted with 14 teachers who currently teach or have taught at institutions such as the Universities of Aveiro, Minho and Évora, and the Polytechnic Institutes of Porto, Castelo Branco, and Lisbon. Content analysis followed Bardin’s model (2016), enabling the identification of patterns and paradigm shifts in teaching/performance practices over time. Recurring topics include curricular plans, pedagogical practices, democratisation of piano education, social recognition of piano teachers, the role of the ‘stage’, and the integration of scientific research into professional’s daily lives. The results facilitated the construction of interinstitutional and intercontinental dialogues on piano education, providing a robust structural framework on procedures, ideologies, and practices in the Portuguese context.