The process of schools’ external evaluation (SEE) – of primary, basic and secondary education schools –, in Portugal, is a responsibility of the General Inspection of Education and Science (GIES). SEE’s official purpose, as presented by GIES, is to contribute for educational improvement or progress (Clímaco, 2005). To accomplish its goals, the SEE process follows a framework structured around three areas: results, educational service provision and leadership and management.
Within this evaluation process, emphasis is given to schools’ self-evaluation (SE) processes, which are considered as a good starting point for schools to understand and acknowledge their own actions and decisions (Rocha, 2012). Since 2002, the Portuguese legislation (Law No. 31/2002) states the need for schools to develop SE procedures. The pressure for SE implementation has, in a certain way, followed the process of SEE, leading to search for knowledge and means (models) for developing SE (Simões, 2007). At the same time, the responsibility of each educational institution to improve its performance (Paschoalino & Hidalgo, 2011) and promote academic success, has been growing.
These arguments underline the need to understand what extent the SE processes developed by schools are able to promote the improvement of educational provision. It is also important to understand the relationship between these processes and the way schools’ stakeholders perceive these policies (Veloso; Abrantes; Craveiro, 2011) and organize their curricular development. In other words, it is important to understand the influence of SEE and SE policies in the development of a school curriculum able to contribute to the creation of an emancipatory and critical orientation for education (Santomé, 2013), that is also, reflexive and attentive to the specific features of each context, in order to reach the principle of a successful school with all and for all.
Based on this idea, we believe that a shared commitment between all social actors is necessary, in order to qualitatively change schools and achieve educational improvement (Bolivar, 2003). Thus, it is also important to study the conditions contributing for the inclusion and respect of the different social groups that coexist in each society (Santomé 2013). From the point of view of social and curricular justice (Connell, 1995), these conditions are essential for developing a democratic school. As stated in the Official Journal of the European Union (2009: 1), «(…) the fundamental role of education is to provide for the development of individuals so that they may realise their full potential in today's society, and that, consequently, education institutions at all levels have a very broad range of functions and responsibilities. However, the specific function of education as the basis of the knowledge triangle needs to be further developed».
The research hereby presented, corresponding to a doctoral research project in course, has the general objective to produce knowledge about the SE process developed by schools, its relationship with the SEE process, and the its effects on curricular justice and educational improvement. In further detail, this goal can be achieved through the following specific objectives: to characterize the SE processes of schools that were target of evaluated by the 2014/2015 SEE process; to systematize schools’ modes for monitoring the educational action and identify good SE practices; to identify priority areas of intervention established in schools’ improvement plans, developed by schools as a result of SE and SEE processes; to establish relationships between SE processes and the measures taken to improve the curriculum and the learning processes, taking into account students’ specificities; to identify impacts and effects of schools’ improvement plans in their development; to relate SE processes and effects at curricular and educational levels, with school leadership and management actions.
