PERFORMANCE, INEQUALITY, AND THE ORGANISATION OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS: AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF THE DYNAMICS OF SCHOOLING

Susana da Cruz Martins
¹ Asst. Prof., Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (CIES-IUL), and Gulbenkian Professorship, PORTUGAL, susana.martins@iscte.pt

Abstract

This work aims to identify the main dynamics of education in a transnational and trans-regional perspective. It proposes, therefore, a diachrony with a time span of more than half a century, pondering the meaning of different categories in these processes, in particular those relating to gender and age. In addition, considering the weight of education - taking into account their dynamics and spatial locations - in social opportunities and their relationship with inequality of various types.
Thus, in a first interpretative axis, it proceeds to the characterisation of the most significant moments of enlargement, relating them, simultaneously, to an identification of processes of educational inequalities. The verification of the gradual increase of the access to and certification in educational and training systems, with a historical depth of more than half a century, still referring to a reading of educational inequality associated with other inequalities, such as the regional and national, age/generation and gender.
A second analytical axis is related to the capacity and performance of education systems to operate in these dynamics. How do systems have been creating policies and cultures of functioning that will encourage "impulses" or, on the other hand, make use of "discouraging" mechanisms, being faced with real difficulties in producing basic skills and sustainable learning paths to operate in knowledge-based societies and economies.
Finally, and in a complementary way, it also seeks to produce some relationship between inequality and the fundamental guidelines prevailing in education systems, reflected in their performance and in the context of integration and success of various social groups of students, particularly regarding social origins. 
The findings of this study point to the relationship between education and the opportunities of life and social inequalities and how education systems promote greater equity in the success and construction of school paths. Several references and empirical sources are used and articulated, such as those relating to the OECD, UNESCO, etc., which allow the deepening of these issues and, at the same time, comparisons between countries and regions in an enlarged diachrony.

Keywords: Comparative education; educational inequalities; educational expansion; success and retention.