Research into Educational Management in Portugal: Themes, Focus and Methodologies
Abstract
Today, educational management is an expanding scientific field that has been attracting ever more social and political visibility, and it has been the object of a considerable amount of research. In the Portuguese context, over the past two decades there has been a sharp movement to create post-graduate courses, to increase individual and collective research and the number of scientific publications. The growing centrality assumed by the sociological approaches of educational organisations, associated with a vast collection of scientific research and publications, promoted a meta-analysis of a considerable amount of work produced in this area. For this analysis, we selected 80 dissertations all presented within the context of the pioneering Master’s course, and the oldest course in the country on educational management, the Master in «Education Sciences», specialising in «Educational Management», offered by the University of Minho. Of the main trends identified, the most important were: (i) synchronization between the political agenda, professional experience and research interests; (ii) use of a certain theoretical pluralism, mobilizing two or more models of organizational analysis; (iii) the use of a largely qualitative methodology, tending towards the case study method; (iv) mobilizing a meso-approach to school organization, seeking to coordinate micro and macro analytical levels. On a more substantive plane, this study has contributed to discussions on some dilemmas and agendas that, in our opinion, are involved in constructing the object of educational management.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7358/ecps-2015-011-torr
Copyright (©) 2015 Journal of Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies (ECPS Journal) – Editorial format and Graphical layout: copyright (©) LED Edizioni Universitarie
Journal of Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies (ECPS)
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (19/05/2010 n. 278)
Online ISSN 2037-7924 - Print ISSN 2037-7932
Research Laboratory on Didactics and Evaluation - Department of Education - "Roma Tre" University
Executive Editor: Gaetano Domenici - Associate Executive Editor & Managing Editor: Valeria Biasci
Editorial Board: Eleftheria Argyropoulou - Massimo Baldacci - Joao Barroso - Richard Bates - Christofer Bezzina - Paolo Bonaiuto - Lucia Boncori - Pietro Boscolo - Sara Bubb - Carlo Felice Casula - Jean-Émile Charlier - Lucia Chiappetta Cajola - Carmela Covato - Jean-Louis Derouet - Peter Early - Franco Frabboni - Constance Katz - James Levin - Pietro Lucisano - Roberto Maragliano - Romuald Normand - Michael Osborne - Donatella Palomba - Michele Pellerey - Clotilde Pontecorvo - Vitaly V. Rubtzov - Jaap Scheerens - Noah W. Sobe - Francesco Susi - Giuseppe Spadafora - Pat Thomson
Editorial Staff: Fabio Alivernini - Guido Benvenuto - Anna Maria Ciraci - Massimiliano Fiorucci - Luca Mallia - Massimo Margottini - Giovanni Moretti - Carla Roverselli
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