Framework

Demographic data have shown a growing trend towards the urbanisation of the human population and, in Portugal, it is estimated that about 77% of the population will live in cities by 2050. This migration from rural to urban environments has led to a growing and renewed scientific interest in cities, and in studying and understanding the relationship between their spaces and different human dimensions, such as health and well-being, social justice, history, heritage, common spaces or education.

Cities emerge as a space of analysis from various perspectives, in their transformations and adaptations, and their inhabitants as agents of these dynamic processes. In this way, cities can be seen as living libraries where different types of knowledge intersect: knowledge from science, from experience, from living experience, from imagination. A library of multiple stories that should also be valued as a valuable educational resource.

The call is for the city to be a stage for multiple learning and for meetings between the university and schools.

Educational practices that promote the development of scientific competences, helping to understand, participate and act in the face of current local and global challenges, are increasingly important. Several authors advocate the need to strengthen the dialogue between scientific research and schools. One way to do this is to create opportunities for scientists, teachers and students to meet and exchange knowledge, experiences and perspectives, reconfiguring schools as collaborative ecosystems - schools as part of an interconnected network that links educational content, scientific research and local and global realities. As such, new learning communities can emerge, where scientists, teachers and students work together. This methodological strategy adopts the principles of citizen science, which in turn has been increasingly recognised as a powerful tool for education.

The city can then be a privileged space to stimulate critical thinking about local problems and to relate research topics to issues that interest and motivate children and young people, and citizen science the tool for the collaborative construction of new knowledges and relevant learning.