PREAMBLE

The EduFor Training Centre has been pursuing a policy of questioning, debate, analysis and training, through a networked environment we have been sharing experiments, innovating environments and answers. The six groups of Schools (Canas de Senhorim, Nelas, Mangualde, Penalva do Castelo, Sátão and Vila Nova de Paiva) that are associated to EduFor, comprehend a large educational territory of five Councils and reveal common potential in several domains. All this networked collaborative work is the responsibility of the Pedagogical Committee in matters such as strategies and planning. It is the only formal organization that integrates the top management of a network of councils, where the problems and educational challenges that we face are debated so as to come up with the adequate educational responses to improve educational success. The Pedagogical Committee operates in the Mangualde Group of Schools, head school of Training Centre of the Associated Schools EduFor. 

PURPOSE

In the European educational systems, in the subject areas that are of interest to this project, there are five clusters: centralized systems with limited school autonomy, where countries like Portugal and France can be included; predominantly centralized systems with local certification, as the ones existing in Greece, Italy and Romania; Federal systems with importance on a regional level, in countries such as Germany, Spain and Belgium; cooperative systems between state and local government, in countries such as Denmark, Finland and Poland; decentralized systems with plenty of autonomy in schools, in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands and UK (England – with a large curriculum autonomy) There is a strong need to get to know, study and follow formatively, schools in European countries with different decentralized types of responsibility redistribution and/or educational competencies. 

AIMS

• Share experiences and good practices;
•  Promote knowledge built and shared by the partner countries;
•  Design a framework of the degrees and levels of the different autonomies;
•  Develop, transfer and implement communication platforms;
•  Reinforce common research of solutions for common problems;
•  Contribute by creating a network for an extensive school management overview on a supranational level.

 

DURATION:

3 years - 2015.09.01 to 2018.08.31 (Common space of time for projects requiring research and the production of outputs)

Applicant Organization

• EduFor Training Centre - Mangualde Group of Schools
•  Coordination: Director at EduFor (José Miguel Sousa) and Consultant (Isabel Serra)
•  Participants: - Headmasters of the six Schools Associated at EduFor - EduFor Training Centre Staff - Technical Secretaries Liaison EduFor/Schools (Group B)

Other Partners in Portugal

• University of Porto - Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE)
•  Task: Permanent project assessment; production and/or scientific validation of the outputs; organizing International Seminar (multiplier event) at the end of the project.
•  Participants: Researcher (Ana Mouraz)

Partners outside Portugal

• Poland
•  The Netherlands
• United Kingdom (England)
•  Italy
•  Spain Outside Portugal there are five countries with a school/organization in each of them. Each school/organization will be participating with two or three persons, one of them is necessarily a Headmaster.
• The Participants are divided into two groups. Group A – Headmasters/Directors/Consultants/Advisors. Group B – Technical Assistants (Administrative staff / Secretariat staff)​

        Six European Countries / Seven Formal Entities

 

Participants

• EduFor Training Centre (six schools associated)
• University of Porto
• Istituto Omnicomprensivo Ridolfi-Zimarino
• I Społeczne Liceum Ogolnokształcące
• Branston Junior Academy
• Confederacion Espanola Centros de Ensenanza
• Gemeente 's-Hertogenbosch​

       The countries were geographically selected so as to comprehend the diversity of the European culture.