Brazil and East Timor: Reflections on university teachers training and educational cooperation

Abstract

The educational cooperation established between Brazil and Timor-Leste is guided by the principle of horizontal cooperation and foresees a concerted action with a view to reducing social inequalities. This principle also implies that the established actions within the scope of international collaboration are of a temporary nature, focusing on solving specific problems that require cooperative strategy. In support to Higher Education, especially at Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e, the actions of the Teacher Training Program and Portuguese Language Teaching focus mainly on teaching, research and extension. In the specific case of teaching, it is presupposed that the classes are taught in a co-teaching environment in order to contribute to the formation of the current teaching staff, both Brazilian and Timorese. This article aims to reflect on the activities of the Brazilian educational cooperation developed in Higher Education in Timor-Leste inquiring whether they have contributed to the formation and improvement of academics from both countries. Thus, a brief literature review is presented to indicate the importance of pedagogical training of higher education teachers, which is often relegated into the background in HEIs in both Brazil and Timor-Leste. Later, the article highlights the potential of co-teaching activities in the development of coordinated teaching skills for university teachers training. It concludes that the results of this bilateral horizontal cooperation are very significant and that co-teaching activities contributes to pedagogical training for teachers from both countries. Moreover, it is observed that, participating of this activities, Timorese teachers and students improve their knowledge about Portuguese language.    Keywords: Higher Education. Teacher training. Educational cooperation.