Tiago Neves

Education and Citizenship: Redemption or Disempowerment? A Study of Portuguese-Speaking Migrant (and Non-Migrant) Youth in Portugal

The institution of the European Union has had important implications on educational policies throughout Europe, with a growing emphasis on ‘Citizenship Education’ since the mid-1990s. This can be interpreted as a response to phenomena such as the rise of ethnocentrism and xenophobia and of political disaffection of both older and younger citizens. Departing from Weilers notion of educational reform as compensatory legitimation, this article analyses the case of migrant youth in Portugal, which is particularly interesting for two reasons. The first is that migrant policies in Portugal have been extremely well evaluated by international agencies, in terms of their potential for the inclusion of migrants. The second is the fact that the migrant groups considered here, Angolans and Brazilians, both have Portuguese as their first language, hence not facing a ‘classical’ barrier to social inclusion. The research presents Portuguese data collected under the European project, Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation (PIDOP), and confronts the vision of policy makers, national and migrant youths, their parents, and their teachers. On the whole, results suggest that there is a huge gap between educational policy and the real life of schools that partly explains the (dis)empowerment of both migrant and national youth. However, in looking at this process, we must also recognise the complex role of generational factors, cultural capital, and political structures (both in the home and host contexts) in explaining youth civic and political engagement and participation.

The managerialist turn and the education of young offenders in state care

Managerialism has become a major trait of youth justice systems throughout Europe over the past couple of decades. This has taken place in the wider context of significant changes in criminal justice systems, which in their turn are articulated with the rise of neo-liberalism. There has been a shift from a humanistic penal welfarism strongly predicated on state interventions, and aimed at the social reintegration of offenders, to a containment regime focused mostly on social control, risk management and the reduction of insecurity. Based on ethnographic work carried out in a detention and education centre for juvenile offenders in Portugal, this paper presents and discusses the ways in which this managerialist turn impacts on the education of youths in custodial state care. Specifically, it focuses on the downgrading of educational expectations, the relegation of schooling to a matter of low priority, and the decline of the rehabilitation ideal. The implications of this managerialist turn for professional practice are also discussed.

Social inequality in access to higher education: grade inflation in private schools and the ineffectiveness of compensatory education

Abstract Access to higher education is affected by inequalities worldwide. Here we present a longitudinal study based on large databases of scores in upper secondary education and access to higher education in Portugal. Our findings show how access to higher education builds on and reinforces social inequalities: (1) private, fee-paying secondary schools inflate their students’ scores; (2) this inflation unfairly improves their chances of accessing higher education; (3) the Portuguese national compensatory education programme is ineffective in bridging the gap in academic performance between the less privileged and the rest of the schools. This study, then, provides further insights into how the upper classes are disproportionately benefited by the massification of higher education. To achieve greater equity, issues such as the State supervision of grading practices, the assessment and reconfiguration of compensatory education programmes, and the admission process into higher education have to be addressed.

Head teachers' perceptions of secondary school rankings: Their nature, media coverage and impact on schools and the educational arena

AbstractThis article begins by noting the significant role played by school rankings in the progressive transformation of the educational arena into a quasi-market. To better understand how schools deal with this situation, we interviewed head teachers of secondary schools. To increase sample diversity, we conducted interviews in public and private schools located in opposite extremes of the Portuguese schools ranking. The data show that, while agreeing that rankings provide a simplistic account of school work, head teachers of all schools find themselves engaged in an inescapable competition spiked by the pressure generated by media coverage. This impacts schools in several ways, including manipulation of the schools position in the rankings, parental demand and staff frustration. Finally, rankings and the associated competition reinforce the divide between public and private schools.

Immigration and the Ambivalence of the School: Between Inclusion and Exclusion of Migrant Youth

This article examines the perceptions of young migrants (and non-migrants), their parents, and teachers to discuss whether the school is a device of inclusion or a device of exclusion that produces inequalities. It presents qualitative and quantitative data collected in the urban areas of Lisbon and Porto. First, we analyze data from 14 focus groups, involving 94 participants, and 12 interviews. Second, we consider survey data from a sample of 1,010 youngsters of Portuguese, Angolan, and Brazilian origin. Findings suggest the school plays an ambivalent role; however, participants emphasize mostly its discriminatory and segregating role.

Linking Learning Contexts: The Relationship between Students’ Civic and Political Experiences and Their Self-Regulation in School

This paper considers the relationship between self-regulation strategies and youth civic and political experiences, assuming that out-of-school learning can foster metacognition. The study is based on a sample of 732 Portuguese students from grades 8 and 11. Results show that the quality of civic and political participation experiences, together with academic self-efficacy, are significant predictors of young people’s self-regulation, particularly regarding cognitive and metacognitive strategies (elaboration and critical thinking). Such effects surpass even the weight of family cultural and school variables, such as the sense of school belonging. Therefore, we argue that the pedagogical value of non-formal civic and political experiences is related to learning in formal pedagogical contexts. This is because civic and political participation with high developmental quality can stimulate higher-order cognitive engagement and, thus, contribute to the development of learning strategies that promote academic success.

Mediation in Local Educational Governance: The Educating Cities Movement in a Portuguese Town

Educational processes have had to deal with the significant changes that have been occurring throughout the world, at different levels, in the last few decades. The Educating Cities movement, which has been followed by cities from all over the world — from Rwanda to Denmark, through Mexico, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Italy — is an attempt to deal with such changes. The movement defines the deepening of the practice of democratic values as the greatest challenge of the twenty-first century. This article explores the role of social and educational mediation in the Educating Cities movement. Its empirical focus is on some of the experiences of the cities that belong to this network, with a special emphasis on the city of Porto, Portugal.

Regime de colaboração: duas experiências de organização cooperativa na área de educação

This article refers to a partial result of doctoral research whose main objective is to identify and analyze the experiences of Education Development Arrangements in the state of Bahia. Based on a qualitative approach and having as a methodological strategy the case study, this article aims to present two experiences of cooperative organization, characterizing them and problematizing their articulation with the institute of the collaboration regime, especially with regard to the sharing of political, technical and and financial. The preliminary results show that, despite being successful models of cooperative organization, there is a flagrant need for coordinating and inductive actions of the Union and the states, which in the case of Bahia, in the intergovernmental plan, has an inexpressive role in the federative articulation with the municipalities.

Being civic while disavowing politics: An ethnography of a youth NGO in Portugal

Civic and political participation are the vehicles through which citizens of democratic societies engage in the public sphere, identify and address matters of public concern, and monitor governments’ activities. While the civic and the political are often regarded as two sides of the same coin, that assertion deserves questioning in times of an expanding voluntary sector and shrinking participation in institutional and electoral politics. Based on an ethnographic study in a large volunteer organization in the north of Portugal, this article discusses the complexities of civic and political participation, namely whether it is possible to be civic without being political. The article shows how an emphasis in caring for the other and promoting volunteers’ personal development coexists with indifference regarding political issues, and how high levels of motivation and engagement concur with resolving (or smothering) conflict through a strong investment in affective bonds, rather than open discussion. Finally, the article examines the role of religion in creating collective identity and simultaneously legitimizing a depoliticized approach to social intervention, thus exploring the paradoxes and limitations that may lie in the way of wishing to change the world without engaging in politics.

An Organization of the Theoretical Perspectives in the Field of Civic and Political Participation: Contributions to Citizenship Education

ABSTRACT This article provides a review of the theoretical perspectives on civic and political participation. Four distinct views were identified in the literature: (a) The orthodox view: “Civic and political participation are always positive”; (b) The broad view: “Civic and political participation are multidimensional”; (c) The qualitative view: “Civic and political participation are not always good”; and (d) The nonconformist view: “The need to redeem the political dimension of participation.” This article intends to sophisticate simplistic assumptions about civic and political participation and to provide an original organization of the theoretical perspectives in this field. Based on this analysis, this article presents suggestions for an alternative approach to citizenship education.