PhD in Sociology. Full Professor at ISCTE, where she has taught since 1993. She is currently a member of the Department of Social Research Methods at the School of Sociology and Public Policy and a researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte). Her main areas of research have been: education and adult education; competences, literacy and reading practices; science and society; and research methodologies in the social sciences. She has coordinated and been part of several research projects funded by national and international agencies, private and public organisations. She is the author and co-author of several scientific publications including books, book chapters and articles in indexed journals. She has extensive teaching experience, having coordinated and taught courses in undergraduate, postgraduate, master's and doctoral programmes in the fields of sociology and data analysis in the social sciences. 

She is currently the Director of Iscte's Doctoral Programme in Sociology, coordinator of the CIES ‘Education and Science’ Research Group, a member of Iscte's General Council, a member of the National Education Council, where she coordinates the Specialised Commission on ‘Democratisation and Educational Inequalities’, and a member of the Higher Statistics Council (representing CRUP), where she chairs the Standing Section on Social Statistics.