The study proposes to compare Portuguese and Finnish public schools (lower and upper secondary schools) to examine their contexts and conditions of governance, stressing similarities and differential characteristics. Within the European education system, Finland has shown us an example of what is considered by bodies such as OECD and UNESCO quality education. Portugal and Finland are, at the moment, highly different countries regarding their academic students results in non-higher education. Therefore our hypothesis is that the value of the use of contrasting cases can override the value of comparable cases. The research will provide an opportunity to deepen a range of issues within a comparative approach and to assess potential impacts such as students performance and success at school.

The challenges posed by our project form the following primary research questions:

1. Which economical, social, and cultural factors mould the Portuguese and Finnish governance of the schools studied?

2. How are the schools studied comparable regarding their governance?

3. What part (if any) does decentralization play in the Portuguese and Finnish governance of schools? What part does decentralization and local communities play in school governance in the era of globalization? Does “going local” make any sense when “the world (or at least the European Union) is your oyster”?

4. What does a convergent regulation model of education for Europe mean in the Portuguese and Finnish schools?

5. What is the relevance given to the construction of a sense of citizenship of students, in the context of the school teaching policies?

This research is based on a conceptual critical perspective  of the policies of school administration in Portugal and in other countries (Smyth, 1993; Ball, 1997; Barroso, 1997; Boyd, 1991; Derouet & Dutercq, 1997; Lima & Afonso, 2002; Sarmento, 1999; Popkewitz, 2000; Vega (2005); Ball, 2006) as well as on the emerging evidence of multiple empirical studies (among others, Stelzer, 1974;  Afonso, 1994; Afonso, 1997; Lima, 1998;Torres, 2004; Barroso, 2005; Ferreira, 2005; Värri & Alava (2005); Sanches, 2009).

From a theoretical framework of the development of educational administration policies which cause various configurations of legal requirements of school autonomy and management, the study considers essentially two other areas inter-connected within a comparative perspective:  logics of decentralization and teaching policies regarding citizenship education.

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