However, until the mid-1970s, limited access to archives and political constraints led the few historians of education at the time to focus primarily on topics such as educational institutions, higher education, pedagogical doctrines, and biographies of educators. Continuing a trend established in the early 20th century, the history of Portuguese educational structures and ideas was often treated as chapters within the broader history of culture in collective works on the History of Portugal. As Rogério Fernandes noted: “ One final feature of Portuguese historiography during this period is worth highlighting: the tendency not to move beyond an erudite descriptivism in which pedagogical events are reconstructed as though they had occurred in a social vacuum ” ( História da Educação, História das Mentalidades , [History of Education, History of Mentalities] 1988, p. 106). At the beginning of the same decade, Joaquim Ferreira Gomes, Rafael Ávila de Azevedo, and Fernando Castelo-Branco undertook pioneering studies outside their institutional affiliations, drawing on previously unexplored primary sources. Additionally, some longitudinal chapters were included in general histories of Portugal and cultural movement histories. Nevertheless, these initiatives were not sustained, and the field of history of education did not experience the paradigm shift it required. Also, i n the early 1970s, a team from the Pedagogical Research Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Alberto Ferreira, Áurea Adão, Fernando Castelo-Branco, José Salvado Sampaio, Rogério Fernandes and Rui Grácio) made significant strides in the History of Education. They initiated projects exploring new themes, used alternative archival collections, and consequently, other researched sources, employed more problem-based approaches, aiming to situate pedagogical events within their social contexts .

From 1976–1977, following the implementation of educational reforms, the History of Education was progressively incorporated into the training curricula for primary and secondary school teachers. With various designations as an academic discipline, it unequivocally contributed to advancing perspectives and scientific approaches in the field of history of education. With the academic recognition of the Education Sciences programmes, the curricular area of History of Education and research in this domain began to evolve, selecting new themes that often required interdisciplinary approaches. Monographic works based on previously unpublished documents held in newly accessible, albeit poorly organised, archives were published, largely following methodologies adopted by French and Anglo-Saxon historians of education. Similarly, in Faculties of Arts, the History of Education gained greater prominence within History programmes, often presented as themes within cultural history courses. Additionally, the publication of the first História do ensino em Portugal [ History of Education in Portugal ] by Rómulo de Carvalho (1986) marked a significant contribution to university-level research in this field. This work, based on a substantial collection of legislative primary sources and previously published partial studies, provided an important foundation for the study of the history of education at university . From the last decade of the 20th century, two key research tools edited by António Nóvoa were published: A imprensa de educação e ensino: repertório analítico (séculos XIX e XX) [ The Press on Education and Teaching: An Analytical Index, 19th and 20th Centuries ], ( 1993) and Dicionário de Educadores Portugueses [ Dictionary of Portuguese Educators ] , ( 2003 ) . These were followed by A Educação nos artigos de jornal durante o Estado Novo (1945–1969): um repertório cronológico, temático e onomástico [Education in Newspaper Articles During the Estado Novo, 1945–1969: A Chronological, Thematic, and Onomastic Index], coordinated by Áurea Adão (2012).

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