Abstract

PATACHO, Pedro  and  SANTOME, Jurjo Torres. "… to each his own". The democratic participation in the public school. Rev. Port. de Educação [online]. 2017, vol.30, n.2, pp.275-304. ISSN 0871-9187.  https://doi.org/10.21814/rpe.11834.

The participation of the families and the community was one of the two arguments underlying the Portuguese school governance model approved in 2008. However, there is no evidence that this participation has contributed to significant improvements in schools. This article emerges from a larger case study that analyzed the participation of families in two school clusters in the suburbs of Lisbon, both with a good reputation in the community, but quite different regarding the context variables. 438 questionnaires were applied to families, 122 to teachers, and 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with several participants. Results show, above all, a conservative vision of education and a marked contradiction between the rhetoric and the practice of democratic participation, which seems to constitute the mere fulfillment of a legal formalism.

Keywords : Family and community participation; Democratic school; Social justice; School autonomy.

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