School participation: representations of 3rd cycle pupils in Aveiro (Portugal)

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection about the intrinsic relationship between democracy and education, particularly in the aspects related to the participation of students in the school decisions. In this sense, and within the sphere of the autonomy regime of Portuguese schools it is important to identify the formal and informal spaces afforded to the youngsters in decision-making inside the school in order to understand the latter's role in stimulating and developing youngsters for the exercise of an active citizenship. The democratic lifestyle is constructed through learning opportunities about itself, namely through participative experiences within the school context. In 2009 we carried out a study as part of a master dissertation in the Sciences of Education at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, at two public schools of basic education belonging to the Aveiro Council spanning a population of 240 pupils from the 8th and 9th years of schooling and fourteen class delegates. The results show that pupils have a feeble participation, both formal and informal, despite the Decree No. 115-A/98 establishing that schools can, within the limits of their autonomy, create and promote spaces for the effective participation of pupils. The analysis of the instruments of autonomy of the schools investigated reveals that pupil participation is still regarded as an ideal, and has yet to be turned into a real undergoing project. We therefore concluded that schools still center decisions in the teachers, pupil participation being only formal, passive, and ritualized.