Abstract

BARROS, Cristina; CORDEIRO, António Rochette; GAMA, Rui  and  ALCOFORADO, Luís. Territorial socioeconomic contexts, education, and academic failure in the Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community (Portugal). Educ. Pesqui. [online]. 2022, vol.48, e231821.  Epub Sep 02, 2022. ISSN 1678-4634.  https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-4634202248231821eng.

Despite the indisputable advances in education over the last decades, school failure and early school-leaving indicators in Portugal remain somewhat high, particularly when compared with those of other European Union countries. Once identified, the need to understand this problem have given rise to a number of research studies ranging from factors mostly related to development: students’ motivations and aspirations, families’ socioeconomic and cultural conditions, school organisational aspects and teaching staff quality, which focus less on variables more related to territory. Assuming, conceptually, school failure as a multidetermined phenomenon, yet directly relating it to the geographical space in which schools are located and students live, this study seeks to identify and explain some territory-related variables, viewed in this study from an innovative and dynamic perspective, in an attempt to characterize its identity by a coordinated and cross-cutting series of indicators. This study was developed within the Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community, in Portugal, and involved a robust statistical analysis relating primary students’ performance (10-year olds) in national exams with territorial characteristics. Thus, it points to the mutual influence of these dimensions and suggests the need for a grass-roots debate, reinforcing actions to prevent and combat school failure and early school leaving.

Keywords : Educational success in Portugal; Local education policies; Education and territory.

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