Reforms in educational management: a comparative analysis between Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

Important changes within the organization and administration of Brazilian education have occurred during the last decade. Suggestions for decentralized, participatory and independent educational management have been on the increase. These issues are, in fact, not a Brazilian particularity since they are on the agenda of the educational reforms in other countries. Infact, the phenomenon is more extensive and coincides with the emergence of a new governing concept which, in its turn, is part and parcel of the process involving the (re)definition of the role of the State and of the (re)orientation ofits praxes. Since the new models of public management involves decentralization, reinforcement of autonomy and widening of social participation, these three factors are the categories on which current comparative study reforms occurred in the administration of the education system in Brazil and Portugal. Data of these studies are employed in current essay to discuss the reasons of the relative homogenization of the new modelof school administration and, at the same time, identify common guidelines and particularities in the appropriation of the model in both countries.

Keywords

Reconfiguration of the role of the State; New public management; Brazilian and Portuguese education reforms