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Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 19th Aug 2026, 20:16:22 EET
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14 SES 08 A: Education in Place: Connecting Schools, Communities, and Territories.
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14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper Articulating School, Community and Territory in Times of Polycrisis: The Oeiras Educa+ Program University of Lisbon / Municipality of Oeiras, Portugal Presenting Author:This paper examines the role of territorialized education policies in addressing contemporary educational challenges. The study focuses on the Oeiras Educa+ Program (POE+), a municipal education policy implemented in the municipality of Oeiras, Portugal, since 2018. The program promotes systematic articulation between formal education (schools) and non-formal educational experiences developed within the community and the local territory. The central topic of the article is the contribution of municipal education policies to strengthening school-community relationships, enhancing educational equity, and expanding learning opportunities beyond the traditional boundaries of the school. The article situates education as a collective, territorially grounded process that mobilizes local actors, resources, and knowledge to respond to complex and differentiated social challenges. The research question guiding the study can be summarized as follows: How does the Oeiras Educa+ Program function as a territorialized education policy, and what is its impact on equity, community participation, and the articulation between formal and non-formal education in a context of polycrisis? This question reflects a concern with understanding both the structural characteristics of the program and its broader educational and social implications. The objective of the article is to analyze the impact of POE+ as a municipal education policy by examining empirical evidence produced through external evaluation reports. Specifically, the study aims to assess how the program contributes to the democratization of access to educational experiences, the diversification of learning opportunities, and the strengthening of relationships between schools, community institutions, and the territory. By linking empirical findings with relevant theoretical perspectives, the article seeks to position POE+ as a meaningful example of a territorialized and equity-oriented education policy. The theoretical framework integrates three main conceptual strands. First, the notion of curricular justice, as developed by Torres Santomé (2011), underpins the argument that socially just education requires recognition of diversity and the integration of educational experiences rooted in community life and local contexts. From this perspective, rigid separations between formal and non-formal education tend to reproduce inequalities by restricting access to culturally, scientifically, and civically enriching experiences. Second, the framework draws on theories of community participation and democratic education, particularly the idea of schools as public spaces of collective construction (Patacho, 2021). Education is conceptualized as a political and social process in which teachers, students, families, and community partners share responsibility for designing and implementing meaningful learning experiences. This participatory approach reinforces belonging, co-responsibility, and contextualized learning. Third, the article engages with literature on the territorialization of education policies, which highlights the growing role of municipalities in coordinating local educational ecosystems (Barroso, 2025, 2013; Fernandes, 2014; Machado & Alves, 2014). In contexts of partial decentralization, local governments are seen as key actors capable of articulating multiple levels of governance, mobilizing territorial resources, and responding to locally specific needs. Within this framework, schools are understood not merely as instructional institutions, but as community hubs embedded in broader networks of collaboration. Together, these theoretical perspectives provide the analytical lens through which the Oeiras Educa+ Program is examined, allowing the study to interpret POE+ as a locally grounded response to contemporary educational challenges and as a concrete expression of education as a public, collective, and territorially situated good. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study adopts a qualitative approach based on the documentary analysis of three external evaluation reports produced by the POE+ Observatory between 2022 and 2025. These documents include reports on program results, experiences and strategic reflection. The analysis followed the methodological principles proposed by Rapley (2018) and Flick (2014), who conceptualize documents as social products expressing institutional practices, political discourses and decision-making processes. The documents were analyzed with the aim of identifying: • structural and organizational characteristics of POE+. • quantitative data on participation and program reach. • evidence of educational and community impact. • relationships established between school, community and territory. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The findings indicate that POE+ has emerged and operates as a territorialized education policy that articulates formal education with non-formal educational experiences, promoting equity, community participation and stronger links between school, community and territory. From the perspective of curricular justice, POE+ promotes cultural representation and equitable access to socially meaningful educational experiences, moving beyond a conception centered solely on formal schooling. The systematic involvement of students in cultural, scientific and civic activities demonstrates that the enacted curriculum extends beyond the classroom, integrating territorial knowledge and practices.The participation of community partners reflects the understanding of schools as public spaces of co-construction and shared responsibility for education. This collaborative dynamic transform education into a shared practice among multiple actors, strengthening social cohesion and belonging. Aligned with territorialized education policy approaches, POE+ also demonstrates that municipal policies can effectively articulate multiple governance levels and local resources, fostering a resilient and contextualized educational ecosystem. By establishing stable networks of cooperation between schools, communities and local government, POE+ contributes to the construction of locally grounded yet adaptive educational responses. The analysis also reveals that education policies oriented towards broad goals (such as sustainability or social justice) do not develop uniformly, but through “local pathways” shaped by diverse contexts, actors and subnational practices. As in the case of the US school districts analyzed by Verschueren (2025), POE+ can be understood as a local pathway of territorialized education policy in Portugal, responding to community-defined priorities rather than merely replicating nationally prescribed models. Programs such as POE+ highlight the importance of local contexts and heterogeneous actors in the formulation and implementation of transformative education policies, underscoring the value of diversity, participation and community engagement in the development of education as a public good. References Barroso, J. (2013). A emergência do local e os novos modos de regulação das políticas educativas. Educação Temas e Problemas, 12 e 13, pp.13-25. Barroso, J. (2005). Políticas educativas e organização escolar. Universidade Aberta. European Educational Research Association. (2024). Knowing and acting: School-community relationships and educational research in a time of polycrisis. Network 14. https://eera-ecer.de/networks/14-communities-families-and-schooling-in-educational-research/default-dee01bc63a0801b9f2254ab10d2bb1f5/nw-14-knowing-and-acting-school-community-relationships-and-educational-research-in-a-time-of-polycrisis Fernandes, A. S. (2014). Contextos da intervenção educativa local e a experiência dos municípios portugueses. In J. Machado, J.M. Alves, A.S. Fernandes, J. Formosinho & I. Vieira (Org.). Municípios, educação e desenvolvimento local. Projetos educativos municipais. FML Flick, U. (2014). An introduction to qualitative research (5th ed.). Sage Publications. Machado, J. & Alves, J. M. (Coord.), (2014). Município, território e educação: a administração local da educação e da formação. Universidade Católica Portuguesa. OECD (2020), Decentralisation and Regionalisation in Portugal: What Reform Scenarios?, OECD Multi-level Governance Studies. OECD Publishing https://doi.org/10.1787/fea62108-en. Patacho, P. (2021). Pensar a educação. Escola, justiça social e participação. Porto Editora Rapley, T. (2018). Doing conversation, discourse and document analysis. Sage Publications. Torres Santomé, J. (2011). La justicia curricular. El caballo de Troya de la cultura escolar. Ediciones Morata. Verschueren, C. (2025). Local pathways to sustainability education policies: A Comparative case study of three large school districts in the USA. Journal of Education Policy, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2025.2537172 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper The Significance of Regional Factors in the Life Course Formation of Young Adults in Multi-disadvantaged Positions University of Turku, Finland Presenting Author:Space is an important, yet often overlooked factor affecting individual life course formation. In critical policy studies, the concept of spatial justice (Soja, 2013) is utilized to unveil how space intersects with power dynamics and policy-making creating conditions that reinforce social inequalities and further stigmatize and marginalize disadvantaged groups. In the field of youth studies, research (Rambla & Kovacheva, 2023; Roberts, 2009) has shown how spatial factors and regional structures of opportunities can both facilitate and constrain individual agency and tend to play a crucial role in young people’s future prospects and life course formation. Drawing on life course theory (Elder, 1998) and the spatial justice perspective, we explore how spatial factors shape life course opportunities, choices and aspirations of young adults in vulnerable and multi-disadvantaged positions. The data was collected in Spring 2024 as part of the larger CLEAR research project, in which 169 young adults in vulnerable and multi-disadvantaged life situations from eight European countries were interviewed with the aim to understand how spatial factors, namely regional opportunity structures and policies open and close their educational and labour market opportunities, and how young people in multi-disadvantaged positions exercise their agency along their life courses. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used Our presentation is based on the Finnish data collected within the CLEAR research project consisting of 22 narrative biographical interviews with young adults (aged 18–28) from two contrasting Finnish regions, Southwest Finland and Kainuu. While Southwest Finland represents a thriving area with growing population and versatile educational and labour market opportunities for young people, Kainuu is a more declining area with negative population growth, high dependency rate and more limited life opportunities available for young people. The interviewed young adults, ten females and twelve males, were affected by diverse factors of vulnerability including but not limited to unstable family backgrounds, severe mental and physical health issues, learning disorders, bullying or harassment at school, and dropping out of education. The data were analysed with qualitative content analysis, with special attention paid to the interviewees’ educational and working life experiences and pathways, future aspirations and their perceptions of regional conditions and opportunities. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings While interviewed young adults in the declining region of Kainuu were aware of the scarce educational and labour market opportunities of their home region, the significance of space in shaping young people’s life courses did not surface in the interviews of the young people from Southwest Finland to the same extent. Furthermore, the ways in which interviewed young adults perceived regional opportunities was influenced more by their own vulnerable life situations than by whether they lived in a thriving or declining region. Additionally, our results show that the significance of space in young adults’ life course formation cannot be understood from a solely geographical perspective and by focusing only on regional educational and labour market opportunities. In both regions, segregated schools, classrooms and neighbourhoods produced a new layer of inequality impacting on the life opportunities of disadvantaged young people and potentially marginalize them even further. Our analysis also revealed that an individual’s relationship to a space involves a sense of belonging to a community, yet the power dynamics of inclusion and exclusion constrain how individuals experience belonginess and construct space-related meanings. References Elder, G.H. (1998). The life course as developmental theory. Child Development 69(1), 1˗12. Rambla, X. & Kovacheva, S. (2023) Constructing meaningful transition in a vulnerable situation – The role of lifelong learning policies in European regions. International Journal of Social Welfare 32, 45˗54. Roberts, K. (2009). Opportunity structures then and now. Journal of Education and Work 22(5), 355˗368. Soja, E.W. (2013). Seeking Spatial Justice. University of Minnesota Press. 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper Schools within their Territory: which Relationships Matter? University of Cantabria, Spain Presenting Author:The work presented is part of a teaching innovation project developed at the University of Cantabria (Spain), whose objective has been to analyse and understand the relationships between various schools in the region and their communities, using information obtained in the development of a training proposal aimed at teacher training students for this analysis. The training programme is linked to the Practicum and its purpose was for students to document and analyse the relationships that schools establish with different community agents, which would later serve as a basis for reflection in the training seminars. More specifically, we asked students to record all the activities that, during their internship, were carried out by their class group in some kind of relationship with the community, specifically collecting information on the objectives of the activity, its duration, the entities involved, the nature of the collaboration and the degree of continuity. These records become objects of analysis within the framework of the work presented here. The study is epistemologically aligned with research on school-community relations, a field which, although broad and well-established, is also characterised by considerable conceptual dispersion. Thus, in line with the arguments of some authors (Kerr, Dyson & Gallannaugh, 2016; Cummings, Dyson & Todd, 2011), a not insignificant part of the literature has focused on describing some specific collaborative practices, without questioning the assumptions that underpin them, which can lead to the naturalisation of forms of relationship that are rather episodic and limited in scope in terms of educational transformation (Dyson & Robson, 1999; Lupton, 2010). Furthermore, although the benefits of including local communities have been recognised, their actual inclusion remains a challenge, as research (Eikelenboom & Long, 2023) has shown how the interests of large companies, entities or institutions tend to be overrepresented, while local entities remain marginalised. Similarly, there is an approach to the study from the perspective of the school included in the territory as a complex system of agents and relationships (Sales, Moliner & Lozano, 2017; Moliner & Sales, 2020). Therefore, in this paper, we attempt to advance the conceptualisation of these relationships and analyse their nature and the logic (utilitarian or pedagogical and reciprocal) that underpins them. These theoretical concerns justify the analytical decisions adopted in this study, which is based on a set of categories that allow us to characterise school-community relationships according to the established or co-constructed nature of the relationship (instituted/instituting), the origin of the initiative (internal/external), its continuity and its organisational scope. In addition, we incorporate three dimensions aimed at assessing the depth and educational meaning of these relationships in an educational context that currently has to face serious ecological, social and humanitarian problems, which means that this work is also aligned with eco-social educational approaches (Assadourian, 2017; Herrero, 2025; González Reyes & Gómez Chuliá, 2022): a) eco-dependence, understood as the type and quality of the relationship that activities establish with the natural environment, which allows for exchange and reciprocity, promoting enjoyment and respect; b) interdependence, referring to the degree of shared participation, joint construction and co-responsibility among the actors involved; c) and the pedagogical vision, which addresses the coherence of the activities with the curriculum proposal and their connection with the centre's educational project. The research questions include:
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used From a methodological point of view, this research follows the qualitative tradition (Denzin et al., 2017), in that it aims to achieve a deep and situated understanding of the nature of the relationships established between various nursery and primary schools in the region of Cantabria and their local communities. In total, we analysed data from 13 public early childhood and primary education centres, of which 9 are located in urban areas and 4 in rural areas. More specifically, we examined 58 activities carried out in 22 classroom groups, of which 6 correspond to early childhood education and 16 to primary education. In this sense, although this study is not intended to be statistically representative, it does incorporate a significant diversity of educational realities that characterise public schools in our region in terms of school size, educational cycles and courses, geographical location and urban-rural characteristics. For the analysis of the data, we have designed, in an inductive-deductive manner, an analytical framework consistent with the different dimensions that we have set out in the theoretical framework and that the literature points to as essential for understanding the nature of the relationships between the school and the community and, above all, the underlying logic that sustains them. Thus, we have outlined an analysis grid based on a set of analytical categories relating to: the space of development (indoor/outdoor), continuity over time (one-off/ongoing), the origin of the initiative (internal/external), the logic of activity construction (established/institutional practices) and organisational scope (classroom, cycle, stage or centre). In addition, we have added the dimensions of eco-dependence, interdependence and pedagogical vision, assessed on a three-level scale (zero-low, medium and high). We have also included another section for collecting other relevant qualitative observations that may contribute to clarifying, contextualising or shedding light on issues that cannot be recorded using the analytical grid. Finally, it is important to note that the analysis process included opportunities for collective discussion among the members of the research team, aimed at comparing interpretations and refining the application of the analytical framework. The results presented below summarise the main findings derived from the analysis of these dimensions and categories. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The results highlight that one-off activities predominate, with a clear presence of the established over the emerging, giving rise to traditional and stereotypical activities, where the offer appears closed and preconfigured. In this sense, the few instituting activities, co-constructed in some way, tend to depend on specific individuals (e.g. a teacher's friend) and do not tend to be sustained over time. Along the same lines, we observe that the community appears more as a resource (prevalence of ‘going to’ logic) than as an agent with whom to ‘do with’. Likewise, connections with the community and neighbourhood fabric are scarce, with a notable absence of social entities. Outings are generally directed to distant places, such as companies or museums, i.e. institutions that become ‘visitable spaces’ and are attributed with a greater capacity to transmit ‘valuable knowledge’. With regard to the pedagogical meaning, eco-dependence and interdependence, the results show the following: - In general, there is weak curricular integration, with activities at the centre level presenting the greatest difficulties in terms of curricular connection. In contrast, the activities with greater curricular coherence are concentrated in Physical Education, especially those that take place outdoors. On the other hand, ad hoc activities are limited, suggesting that these proposals are conceived as peripheral elements in the curriculum, with a playful or recreational character, but not as integrated learning experiences. - Eco-dependence and interdependence: in general, the activities analysed are very poor in terms of their ability to develop eco-dependence and interdependence among students. Most of the proposals offer few opportunities for exchange, reciprocity or joint construction, both with social actors and with nature, placing students in a predominantly passive role and, in many cases, in the position of spectators. References Assadourian, E. (2017). Educación ecosocial: cómo educar frente a la crisis ecológica. Informe Anual del WorldWatch Institute, Educación ecosocial, 25-49. Cummings, C., Dyson, A., & Todd, L. (2011). Beyond the school gates: Can full service and extended schools overcome disadvantage?. Routledge. Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., MacLure, M., Otterstad, A. M., Torrance, H., Cannella, G. S., ... & McTier, T. (2017). Critical qualitative methodologies: Reconceptualizations and emergent construction. International Review of Qualitative Research, 10(4), 482-498. Dyson, A., & Robson, E. M. (1999). School, family, community: Mapping school inclusion in the UK. Youth Work Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Eikelenboom, M., & Long, T. B. (2023). Breaking the cycle of marginalization: how to involve local communities in multi-stakeholder initiatives? Journal of Business Ethics, 186(1), 31-62 González-Reyes, L. and Gómez-Chuliá (2022). La competencia ecosocial en un contexto de crisis multidimensional. Revista Internacional de Educación para la Justicia Social, 11(2), 29-43. Herrero, Y. (2025). Metamorfosis. Arcadia. Kerr, K., Dyson, A., and Gallannaugh, F. (2016). Conceptualising school-community relations in disadvantaged neighbourhoods: mapping the literature. Educational Research, 58(3), 265-282. Lupton, R. (2009). Area-based initiatives in English education: what place for place and space? In Education and poverty in affluent countries (pp. 127-139). Routledge Moliner, O. & Sales, M.A. (2020) La escuela incluida en el territorio: La transformación educativa desde la participación ciudadana. Octaedro. Sales, A., Moliner, O., & Lozano, J. (2017). Strategies to link Schools to Their Territories. A Survey Study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 18, 692-697. | ||