This paper questions the relations between the emergence of European educational policies and national educational policies. This discussion provides the macro-structural framework to a study about young adults as citizenship construction actors, which assumes that the Europeanization-national policies affect young adult’s citizenship building in a relatively disadvantaged secondary school. Global economic, technological and cultural developments have transformed the type of skills and knowledge(s) required in post-industrial economies and promoted in schools. The impact on education of processes such as the reinforcement of European Union, affects the educational governance, in decision making, social distribution, structural and institutional arenas. Globalisation and the EU help refigure the state´s role to govern education as they shape the content and constructs of national education policies. Institutionalist theories of Europeanization provide a comprehensive map to understand this interaction. They highlight that European institutions may be seen as independent actors with the means and mechanisms to influence member-states, and recognise that European institutions are limited by a range of member-state institutions. Europeanization is thus not linear or top-down but configured within a multi-scale hybrid mode. Distinctive dynamics of educational governance have been figured in European institutions where a “European Educational Arena” has gradually emerged at supranational level, despite variable reticence of member-states. The European Union emerges as a major unique political entity. It has become a site of education policy making and governance. It constitutes an emergent polity, a system of governance that intends at being capable to produce authoritative political decisions over European population. The European dimension to education was introduced in the 70s to foster public understanding and positive attitudes towards the European project. It was since the 90s that it launched a range of educational initiatives to promote democratic and European citizenship. Currently, citizenship is a transversal theme to be promoted throughout European policies and programmes. The most recent policy co-operation has focused on defining the “European dimension” to education. This means it has drawn the basic competences that education systems should promote and the structural and cultural conditions required of nation-state schools. Together with a shift away from the central government of educational governance and the decentralizing to the sub-national level and executive agencies; and a centralizing to international forums, marketization and privatization, decision-making, and so forth, the state education policies are increasingly subject to public pressure, economic forces, and international comparison tables, such as PISA for instance. Not much is known about the ways this may influence the individual construction of citizenship, and how citizenship building institutions, such as education, have adapted to this. In Portugal, the introduction of new modes of educational governance through a variety of political measures, such as school rankings, constitutes an effort to comply with Europe. It is important to understand how this process takes into account the Portuguese realities and specificities, as Portuguese public schools are subject to the constraints and defies of public scrutiny with consequences to young adult citizenship enactment.

The study is localized and has no generalizing objectives. It focuses a particular school in the Portuguese northern interior semi-rural area that is subjected to a double phenomenon of semi-periphery. It takes a qualitative interpretivist approach and makes resource to Critical Discourse Analysis. This paper stands on document analysis of EU and national recent policies concerning education and citizenship.

This paper aims at shedding light on the ways the European and national policies concerning education and citizenship at secondary school level intertwine. It will provide the macro-framework to develop an understanding of the school provision of spaces for young adult citizenship. We hope to be able to make proposals for young-adult-friendly institutional change that responds to the European challenge and promotes young adult citizenship enhancement through voice and participation.