Rethinking Education (EC, 2012) suggests a new phase in European education policy. The constitution of education as a marketable service and the European (Higher) Education area as a market was pinpointed as an implicit agenda in the silent revolution in education landscape fostered by the open method of coordination and the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes. What suggests a new momentum is that: (i) education appears programmatically conceived as a marketable service, in the terms of a business and a European-wide and global market; (ii) a VET reform is underway based on German apprenticeship model, which brings together a version of minimal cheap education and a commercial strategy; (iii) there are signs of centralisation of European education policy on the EC and the CEU, under the European semester, and the apparent decline in importance of the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes and the Education & Training 2020 Programme. When looking at Portugal nowadays, the Europeanisation of education, fostered by economic and financial, as well as educational, European policies, and the choices of the government, presents a complex picture, with the shrinking of the welfare state, the increase in education privatisation and commercialisation, and the growing gap between national and European education welfare levels.

This article examines issues relating to governance and the reform of public policies in the European Union and suggests that a managerial agenda for change is developing, seeking to amplify the space for marketisation and control in the educational sphere. It is argued that, between the 1990s and 2010, world-ambitious educational models have been fostered in ‘Europe’, proposing curricular organisation and regulation principles, such as competences and learning outcomes, as well as regulatory frameworks based on political-technical instruments (qualification frameworks, credit transfer and accumulation systems, quality assurance systems); that is, an unstable and controversial educational language and universe has developed, populated by entities such as active pedagogy, indicators, targets or benchmarks. In order to substantiate the argument, the author briefly analyses, first, the emergence of the curricular dimension in the agenda for educational change; second, she tries to interpret how and why the category ‘learning outcomes (and competence[s])’ has acquired importance in the confluence of the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes and the Education & Training 2010 Programme in this ‘silent revolution in the field of education’. After considering some of these developments in ‘Europe’ and Portugal, she proposes a few tentative reflections regarding this educational paradigm change and the action of teachers and students.

The focus of this article concerns the supranational level, which, in the past few decades, has become increasingly important in the configuration of the field of education. The article examines the way education has been regarded and defined in the context of the European Union and the implications such processes have on the education systems of the member states. The dynamics of Europeification and the setting up of a global European reference for education policies currently possess an intensity, range and depth of intervention which are clearly distant from what was the case a mere decade ago. In this perspective, the European Union and other regional intergovernmental platforms, such as the Bologna Process, constitute settings for mediation that create, filter and convey the globalisation processes.

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RESUMOO Processo de Bolonha constitui um método de acção política em direcção ao Espaço Europeu do Ensino Superior que representa uma nova ordem das relações sociais em educação. A governação multi-escalar, a acção transnacional, a agenda globalmente estruturada para a educação e modelo(s) educativo(s) de ambição mundial perfilam o terreno em que se confrontam programas e protagonistas em torno da constitucionalização do projecto neoliberal e da construção da educação como direito humano ou mercadoria. Neste contexto, o Processo de Bolonha está a configurar um novo quadro regulatório para o ensino superior na Europa em que o mercado ou o cosmopolitismo são sentidos possíveis da mudança com desiguais probabilidades de desenhar o futuro. PALAVRAS-CHAVE

This paper discusses some results of a broader research, focusing on a set of eleven socio-educational practices aiming to overcome school failure and dropout, developed in Portugal, giving particular attention to the local and innovative dimensions. This research aims to understand the point of view of the several actors involved, about which factors, processes and relationships contribute the most to building such practices. Data was gathered through documental analysis and semi-structured interviews with those (institutionally) responsible for each practice under study, and was analysed using two instruments. From the point of view of the people responsible, the practices that contribute the most to overcoming school failure and dropout fall into one of four categories: Study Support (4 Practices), Student Grouping (3), Mediation (3) and Pedagogical Differentiation (1). Some practices mobilise resources; others interfere with learning and life contexts, in order to confront institutional, situational and dispositional barriers to participation and learning. Those practices seem to have an impact on school-family communication. Formal schooling, as well as the socio-cultural inclusion of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, are seen as relevant; yet, we can observe a somewhat fragile involvement of families and communities in practices aimed at promoting their youth’s educational success.

FÁTIMA ANTUNESGlobalização, europeização e especificidade educativa portuguesa: A estruturação global de uma inovação nacional Neste trabalho exploram-se algumas relações entre os processos de globalização e a elaboração de políticas educativas nacionais. Procura-se compreender o modo como o processo de integração europeia constituiu um contexto relevante para a formulação de uma medida de política educativa -a criação do subsistema de Escolas Profissionais em Portugal em 1989. Esta inovação expressa ainda uma agenda política nacional para a educação atravessada por dilemas e, como procura mostrar-se, indubitavelmente inscrita nas condições, desafios e soluções que marcavam a realidade educativa portuguesa.

Governação e espaço europeu de educação: Regulação da educação e visões para o projecto 'europa'Os "efeitos indirectos" das dinâmicas de globalização no campo da educação são visíveis, quer nas mutações do processo de elaboração das políticas educativas, quer na reconiguração da governação da educação. Assim, no que toca ao Processo de Bolonha, parece estar na agenda a aproximação, através da criação de dispositivos e entidades como os sistemas e agências de garantia da qualidade e de acreditação, ao modelo de regulação de mercados. Por outro lado, a forma de regulação determinada por objectivos constitui um desenvolvimento marcante nos processos de gestão de mudança social e educativa em diversos sectores dos sistemas educativos. As bandeiras-projecto para a Europa de ediicação do espaço europeu da educação e do paradigma de aprendizagem ao longo da vida parecem participar dos novos mitos legitimadores iliados no desejo de envolver no mesmo movimento a ordenação do território, físico, social e simbólico, e a criação dos sujeitos.