Administration and Education Policies

Code:

DE243

Acronym:

AEPE

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Social Studies/Public Policies / Educational Sciences

Instance: 2025/2026 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	https://sigarra.up.pt/fpceup/pt/ucurr_adm.ficha_uc_edit?pv_ocorrencia_id=544531#tab1
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Master Degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MCED	18	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	49	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The centrality of Educational Policies is assumed in the problems of Educational Administration, bringing an analytical - political-administrative focus to the scope of competences in education, problematising the process of municipalisation of education as a principle of the New Public Management, framing it in relation to the future of Education. The pressing and inevitable changes in the educational context and in European education systems will be analysed in terms of the various purposes of the state, or of shared responsibilities with other public and/or private authorities.
In the Portuguese reality, the challenge of transferring competences to local authorities should be studied and analysed, as it expresses various challenges in the relationships established between the municipality, the school and the state, with the prospect or not of major changes in the Portuguese education system, which may well give rise to some fears about the future of education.
In this sense, the module's relevance lies in its analysis of current issues and the challenges facing the different educational players in terms of knowledge of school leadership and governance, territorialisation, decentralisation, concentration and recentralisation of educational policies between municipalities, local authorities and schools, which need to be known, problematised, sustained and consolidated for the sake of a more democratic and supportive society and school.


- deepen scientific knowledge in the area of education policies;

- learn about and analyse the political processes of educational governance, the legislation in force and the legislative process of territorialisation in education;

- problematise the decentralising intentions of central government and reflect on the challenges that emerge from the partnership between local authorities and schools;

- problematise the ‘municipalisation of education’: transfer of competences, territorialisation of education policies;

- discuss modes of democratic governance by analysing the concepts of centralisation, decentralisation and regionalisation.

Learning outcomes and competences

Learning outcomes
- Know concepts, modes of government and practices of school administration and management based on an understanding of the socio-organisational characteristics of the state, education systems and schools.
- Critically understand new public management processes as systems of regulation and/or emancipation.

Competences
- Analyse political processes of administration and new public management in different organisational and political contexts, particularly in schools.
- Mediate proposals for exercising democracy and human rights in the field of organisations and educational administration.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Not aplicable.

Program

The contents of this curricular unit will have to take into account the profile and interests of the students who have sought the master's programme in which this unit is situated, although there is a set of reference issues that will help to guide both the training work that takes place in this unit and also to support the process of exploring the interests mentioned above.

From this perspective, it starts from a heuristic way of problematising and stating the studies and is structured around a critical educational intent supported by the programme proposal.

PROGRAMME:

1 Framing Educational Administration in Educational Policies
1.1 The global context and the development of educational policies
1.2 Production of Ideology; Agenda Setting; Decision Making
1.3 Decision-making processes, policy development and implementation
1.4. the micro-politics of the school
1.5. from legislative normativity to analysing official documents

2. Educational Administration and School Management Policies
2.1 Education management in Portortugal: challenges for the management of educational dynamics as democratic and human rights processes
2.2 New public management as a political project
2. 3 The regime of Autonomy, administration and management of public establishments of pre-school, basic and secundary education in Portugal
2.4 Brief Diachrony on the ‘Decentralisation’ of Education in Portugal.
2.5 Municipalisation of Education as a new principle of Governance.

Mandatory literature

Stephen J. Ball; La^micropolítica de la escuela. ISBN: 84-7509-529-1
Stephen J. Ball; How schools do policy. ISBN: 978-0-415-67627-4
Stephen J. Ball; Networks, new governance and education. ISBN: 978-1-84742-979-7
Roger Dale; A^globalização e a reavaliação da governação educacional

Comments from the literature

The General and Compulsory Bibliography are in progress.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Dialogued lectures;
Debates;
Study and research work;
Tutoring.

keywords

Social sciences > Political sciences > Public policy

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	40,00
Exame	60,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	113,00
Frequência das aulas	49,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Students must attend at least 75 per cent of the lessons actually given.

Calculation formula of final grade

Assessment is ‘distributed assessment with final exam’ and consists of the following components:
- small group work, carried out during the semester, on one of the contents of the programme and based on the proposed bibliography and strategic documents of a school or group of schools, and/or legislation, which stimulates a qualified debate with the class, corresponding to the distributed assessment component;
- a written summary in person, to be carried out during the assessment period stipulated in the school calendar, corresponding to the final exam component.
The distributed assessment component (group work and stimulated debate) is assessed on a scale of 0 to 20 points and has a weighting of 40 per cent in the final grade.
The final exam component (written summary in person) is assessed on a scale of 0 to 20 and has a weighting of 60% in the final grade.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not aplicable.

Internship work/project

Not aplicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Students who, by law, are exempt from attending classes must contact their teachers by the end of the 2nd week of classes actually taught in order to negotiate an alternative to assessment.

Classification improvement

It may be done by final exam, covering only the individual component (final assessement component).