Usos e sentidos da educação não formal nos debates parlamentares portugueses entre 1976 e 2023

Non-formal education has received increasing political attention. This article aims to problematise the heterogeneous meanings attributed to non-formal education in parliamentary debates in Portugal between 1976 and 2023. Our approach is based on a thematic documentary analysis of Portuguese parliamentary debates from the 3rd Republic onwards, in which reference was made to the notion of “non-formal education”. The aim is to discuss the extent to which political debates that invoke non-formal education come closer to or distance themselves from European perspectives on lifelong learning. The results indicate that the uses of non-formal education enshrined in the Diário da Assembleia (Official Gazette of the Portuguese Parliament) are discursively aligned with European political trends and orientations. Non-formal education has become a tool for promoting employability, whose specificities allegedly favour acquiring skills valued in the labour market.