Teaching objects and science and technology heritage in Brazil and Portugal: contributions from surveys and inventories as instruments for preservation in secondary schools

ABSTRACT This study offers some reflections about cultural heritage in secondary schools, analyzing some initiatives to survey and enhance the value of teaching objects as cultural assets. An analytical profile of inventories of cultural heritage at secondary schools in Brazil and Portugal is presented. Considering the perspective of science and technology heritage, the methodology involved a literature review and direct contact with institutions to survey and compare the state of inventory-based research of such objects. The initiatives studied here were found to be asymmetrical, requiring standardization and more in-depth analysis to encompass different types of education, thus obtaining more consistent and effective results from a preservation perspective. Nonetheless, there is a growing movement to identify and preserve these artifacts in both countries.