Education governance and privatization in Portugal: Media coverage on public and private education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4293

Keywords:

Globalization, privatization, marginalization, media coverage, association contracts, Portugal

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss recent changes in Portugal’s education policy. Portugal offers an interesting scenario to study the different ways the economic crisis has brought new opportunities to strengthen the privatization agenda. We specifically focus on media coverage and the contractualization of education services with private schools through ‘association contracts’. In the 1980s the Portuguese State through these contracts financed private schools to operate in areas where the public offering was insufficient, thereby ensuring the public access to education and preventing marginalization. Nowadays, however, these contracts are seen as an ideological banner both for and against education privatization. We present an empirical study based on documental analysis of 180 news articles published in the Portuguese media on the changes in the contractualization of education services. The results show two main audiences sustaining distinct societal projects, comprised of a variety of actors, who are either for or against ‘association contracts’. The actors justify their positions based on their understanding of the State’s role in providing education, the policies involving the right to education and decreasing inequalities.

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Author Biographies

Fátima Antunes, Centro de Investigação em Educação/CIEd, Instituto de Educação, Universidade do Minho

Fátima Antunes is a researcher at the Center of Research in Education (CIEd) and Associate Professor of the Department of Social Sciences of Education at the Institute of Education of the University of Minho (Portugal). Research interests include: education policies, globalization and the European Union; education governance, public policies and managerialism; education, democracy, differences and social justice; secondary and vocational education policies; and publishes regularly in Anglophone and Lusophone journals and books.

Sofia Viseu, Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa

Sofia Viseu is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). Her research interests include: educational policy, educational governance, policy network, privatization in education. Her recent work as a focus on the role of new intermediary actors in the fabrication of education policies.

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Published

2019-10-14

How to Cite

Antunes, F., & Viseu, S. (2019). Education governance and privatization in Portugal: Media coverage on public and private education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27, 125. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4293

Issue

Section

Globalization, Privatization, Marginalization