School autonomy in Portugal: The case of the educational community in Algoz – Silves

Abstract

Promulgated in 1976, the autonomy of the Portuguese education system has experienced many ups and downs ever since. Nowadays, in the context of the economic crisis, we are witnessing an orientation towards a strong bureaucratic regulation of the curriculum and its centralization. Despite this managerial paradigm, autonomy contracts reappeared with some potential for decentralization; in this paper we will discuss how far an educational community can go when it has autonomy, planning and management capability. This is the case-study of the school cluster of Algoz-Silves.

Keywords

• política educativa
• autonomía educativa
• administración escolar
• estudio de caso
• investigación educativa