SCHOOL RANKINGS IN PORTUGAL: EXPLORING SOME OF THEIR EFFECTS

Abstract

In this article we have taken into account some of the effects of the publishing of the rankings on the organizational action of the public school educational actors, namely in Portugal. Bearing in mind the fact that the effects of the rankings may neither be lineal nor uniform (PINTO, 2009), we attempt to question whether the referred rankings produce educational quasi-market effects. To further this discussion, we based ourselves on a study (during the school year 2006/2007) conducted by us on teachers, school administration, students and parents in a school in a city belonging to the area of Douro Litoral.
The theoretical-conceptual frame that supports the interpretation of the gathered data comes from different conceptual points of view, although in an articulated form.  Both sociological concepts of the critical education and sociological concepts of Sociology of the educational institutions are called upon. Based on the interpretation of the gathered data, we came to a conclusion that, although not exclusively, the rankings contribute to the emergence of processes of social and academic selection of students and competition among schools; as for the latter case, situations stand out that we classify as school image promotion and fabrication (BALL, 2002).  We encase those behaviours in the school image while an institution of organicist type. 

Key words: school rankings, fabrication, social and academic selection of the students, school organicist image.