Medal of the University of Wroclaw for Prof. Maria Eduarda Duarte

On this occasion, Professor Jean Guichard (INETOP-CNAM, Paris) – the first director and founder of our UNESCO Chair – gave a commemorative speech.

_{fot. Paweł Piotrowski/Uniwersytet Wrocławski}

Prof. Maria Eduarda Duarte is a world-renowned professor of psychology who focuses her research on career guidance and counselling issues and has been collaborating with the University of Wroclaw since 2011.

From 2018 to 2022, she was the head of the International UNESCO Chair on Lifelong Guidance and Counselling at the Institute of Pedagogy at the University of Wroclaw.

Her professional career is linked to the University of Lisbon, where she continued her research career as Professor at the Department of Psychology and Education. Since 2008, she has also been a visiting professor at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil.

She has authored and co-authored 5 monographs on counselling psychology and diagnostic tools in career counselling. She has published more than 50 articles in prestigious scientific journals. She has also authored many chapters in scientific books, encyclopaedic entries, methodological publications for counsellors, research reports and materials prepared for the Ministry of Education in Portugal. She actively participates in scientific conferences.

She was Director of the National Institute of Counselling in Lisbon from 2008 to 2014. She has coordinated a number of international research projects: Career Adaptability: Models and Measures (in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam, CNAM in Paris, Norteastern Ohio Universities College of Medecine, Centre for Research in Psychology, University of Iceland and the University of Pretoria); Career Adaptability in Adults and Contexts of Employment and Unemployment in Portugal and Brazil (with the University of Rio Grande do Sul), as well as Career Guidance and Development of Human Resources at the Psychology Research Centre of the University of Lisbon.

In 2004 and 2008, Prof. M. E. Duarte was also the scientific coordinator of two national recruitment processes for new diplomats at the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prof. M. E. Duarte has also been on the editorial and scientific boards of several journals since 1995: Revista Portuguesa de Psicologia (Portugal), Psychologica (Portugal), L’Orientation Scolaire et Professionelle (France), The Career Development Quarterly (USA), Psicologia: reflexão e Crítica (Brazil), Revista Brasileira de Orientação profissional (Brazil), International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Revista Iberoamericana de Evaluación y Diagnóstico Psicológico, Counseling: Giornale Italiano di Ricerca e Applicazioni  (Italy), Spanish Journal of Psychology (Spain), Studia Poradoznawcze (Journal of Counselogy – Poland), British Journal of Guidance and Counseling (Great Britain).

Prof. M. E. Duarte is a member of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, the European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling, the Portuguese Society of Psychology and the Professional Association of Portuguese Psychologists. Together with M. L. Savickas and J. Guichard, she founded the International Life Design Research Group, which developed a new model of work in career counselling, which is now applied in the work of counsellors all over the world, including Poland.

Prof. M. E. Duarte’s cooperation with the Institute of Pedagogy began in 2011 in Padua, during the founding meeting of European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling, which was also attended by the staff of the Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wroclaw.

Since 2013, Prof. M. E. Duarte has been a guest and speaker at 5 international scientific conferences and 11 scientific seminars organised by the UNESCO Chair, providing extensive support for numerous scientific publications published at the Chair.

Since 2016, she has represented the University of Lisbon in the academic UNITWIN NETWORK “Life designing interventions (counselling, guidance, education) for decent work and sustainable development“, coordinated by the Chair.

In addition, thanks to the invitation of Prof. M.E. Duarte, students of education studies, preparing to become counsellors and adult educators were able to participate in study visits to the Universities of Lisbon (2019) and Coimbra (2022). These visits were an opportunity for them to meet leading Portuguese researchers such as Prof. Duarte, Prof. Maria Paula Paixao, Prof. Isabel Janeiro, Prof. Luis Curral (Dean of the Faculty of Psychology), Dr Isabel do Vale, Dr. Rute Agostinho, Dr. Helena Lourenco, as well as practitioners.

To summarise the main results of the collaboration with Prof. Duarte, it is important to highlight its contribution to:

• International transfer of knowledge and innovation by promoting modern knowledge in the field of educational and vocational guidance and career counselling and inspiring innovative solutions in the Polish model of career guidance;
• Disseminating knowledge to the guidance and counselling community through scientific seminars, open lectures and workshops;
• Integrating the international community of researchers dealing with education, guidance and counselling;
• Promoting our University as an attractive place to study, where students can benefit from lectures delivered by world-renowned academics, thus enabling better preparation for life in a world marked by permanent change;
• Promoting the University of Wrocław internationally.