Portuguese Women in Science and Technology (S&T): Some Gender Features Behind MSc. and PhD. Achievement

Portuguese Women in S&T - Abstract Most research based upon institutional data has been dealing with the situation of Portuguese women in Science and Technology as if it would be a homogeneous set. Quite the opposite, whilst women in science are performing increasingly better than men since the early school ages, indeed a Portuguese idiosyncrasy comparing to other PISA countries, they are still underrepresented in most technological fields. Among other determinants this feature ascribes most Portuguese graduate women to occupations where career prospects are quite uncertain and worse than men's in the same qualification levels. Either by career requirements or in reason of one's seeking to improve knowledge and apply to a better job, post-graduation undergoing appears therefore as an obvious way out strategy. Nevertheless, even high skilled Portuguese women in scientific occupations face generally weaker opportunities and have to take more time than men to achieve a post-graduation. A Project in the behalf of Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology provided us longitudinal data on PhD. and MSc. Trajectories within four Portuguese universities. By investigating such a data on the basis of a Hazard-Survival Model and Cox Regression Analysis we could identify some of the main gender determinants behind obstacles and time to achieve MSc (author abstract)Gender and Science; Obstacles to post-graduation achievement; Hazard Survival Models; Portugal.

Education, development and knowledge: new forms of unequal change under globalization. The case of SSA countries

Abstract One of the leading mismatches brought about by globalization has to do with the severe opposition between the national frameworks in which qualifications and skills are being developed and the wider international contexts in which they are increasingly utilized and reproduced. This gulf becomes almost impossible to overcome and imposes a growing inequality in the access to knowledge in the global economy as the prevalent forms of economic regulation are rendered obsolete. The limitations displayed by national systems of education and training interact with the growing insufficiencies in the performance of labor market and innovation hetero regulators. As a result, increasing flows of excluded workers have been paving the ways between the new global development centers and the emerging new peripheries.Key Words: Education and economic development; quality of education; new North-South divide; Sub-saharan Africa

Education, Vocational Training and R&D: Towards New Forms of Labor Market Regulation

Labor market regulation and its relations with education and training have been performing an historical trajectory which closely intertwined with developments in economic thought. Under the form of human capital theories, neo-classical economics set the bridge between labor market equilibrium and education outputs for decades. The functionalist approach behind that lasting relationship was to be challenged by economic crises and globalization, which imposed the unquestionable supremacy of the demand for skilled work. Likewise, even if only that more strict perspective of education would prevail, which fortunately is not the case, time and hazard came to undertake its denigration on the grounds of a severe loss of regulatory efficiency as globalization was setting up.In this paper we shed light on the increasing role which innovation is called to perform in labor market hetero regulation in the present phase of globalization. Depending on the institutional design throughout which R&D become embedded in nowadays societies, evidence clearly reveals how innovation strategies are to be found so asymmetrically implemented between developed and developing countries, thereby leading to the enlarging divide between the “new North” and “new South” globalization off springs.labor market regulation, education and training, innovation, knowledge, North-South divide, Portugal

School Failure and Intergenerational “Human Capital” Transmission in Portugal

School Failure and Intergenerational Human Capital Transmission… ABSTRACT A new education reform is about to be passed into Law, in Portugal, the extension of compulsory education until the 12th grade being one of the main goals. Given huge value school failure indicators (e.g., illiteracy rates, drop-outs, retention rates) still exhibit for Portuguese education system, we keep large doubts on the effectiveness of such an aim. Moreover, education outcomes inertia between generations appears to be strong, in the light of some indirect indicators, although no recent specific research has been addressing such an issue. In this paper we therefore try to shed some light on the potential impact intergenerational school achievement would exert upon actual school failing and also control for possible endogeneity both with students' own previous trajectory indicators and school effect. For that purpose, we rely on 2003 data relative to Lisbon Metropolitan Area four schools as case studies (author abstract)School failure; father’s, mother’s education; students’ previous school trajectories; school effect; Portugal

Education, development and knowledge : new forms of unequal change under globalization : the case of SSA countries

One of the leading mismatches brought about by globalization has to do with the severe opposition between the national frameworks in which qualifications and skills are being developed and the wider international contexts in which they are increasingly utilized and reproduced. This gulf becomes almost impossible to overcome and imposes a growing inequality in the access to knowledge in the global economy as the prevalent forms of economic regulation are rendered obsolete. The limitations displayed by national systems of education and training interact with the growing insufficiencies in the performance of labor market and innovation hetero regulators. As a result, increasing flows of excluded workers have been paving the ways between the new global development centers and the emerging new peripheries. O fosso alargado entre os espaços nacionais de criação e desenvolvimento de competências e a economia global onde elas cada vez mais se expressam e reproduzem, constitui uma das principais fontes de desajustamento inerentes à globalização. Aquele fosso, virtualmente impossível de ultrapassar, projecta-se numa desigualdade sem precedentes nas condições de acesso ao conhecimento na economia global, tanto mais quanto os reguladores económicos tradicionais se encontram em falência. Com efeito, às insuficiências dos sistemas nacionais de educação e formação associa-se a crescente incapacidade dos reguladores externos dos mercados de trabalho e dos sistemas de inovação. A grande resultante é o fluxo sustentado de trabalhadores excluídos que as relações desiguais entre os novos centros desenvolvidos e as novas periferias vão contribuindo para engrossar

Is public education viable? A brief critical review of neoliberalism in education with a special focus on the portuguese situation

As well as in other social domains, neoliberalism has been invading education. This trend is leading to a general commodification and to the progressive substitution of some basic values, as the equality of opportunities, by efficiency and competitiveness. At the same time, education policies become more and more shaped by strict economic principles, reflecting the training acquired by decision makers in economics and economics of education courses. That is why we reject, as a critical social scientist, the view that the viability of public education could be discussed uniquely on the grounds of mainstream public economics criteria. On the contrary, that discussion must allow critical pedagogies and alternative approaches to express themselves. Also mainstream clichés must be systematically criticized, as we exemplify in the domain of economics of education. Actually, those are the indispensable complimentary pathways throughout which we can return to education its full meaning as a social service; and also to economics of education its legitimacy as a social science.A progressiva invasão da educação, tal como outros sectores sociais, pelas ideias neoliberais, tem vindo a dar lugar à mercadorização generalizada, bem como à substituição de princípios base da escola democrática – como o da igualdade de oportunidades – pelos objectivos de eficiência e competitividade. Este processo desenrola-se a par da implementação de políticas educativas também elas cada vez mais marcadas pela tónica economicista, ou não fossem os decisores treinados maioritariamente pela mainstream economics. Em nossa opinião, há que devolver à educação o seu estatuto de serviço social, enquanto esteio de uma sociedade democrática. Para isso, torna-se necessário proceder a uma reavaliação crítica da educação pública. No entanto, esta não pode limitar-se a um mero estudo de viabilidade económica, antes deve necessariamente convocar os contributos das pedagogias críticas e de outras abordagens alternativas às correntes dominantes. Por outro lado, há também que proceder sistematicamente à desconstrução dos clichés e ideias feitas em domínios como o da economia da educação, onde se contribui para reproduzir as abordagens mainstream na formação dos futuros analistas e dirigentes

Time to Complete a Pos-graduation: some evidence of "school effect" upon ISCED 6 trajectories

Most Portuguese higher education institutions are increasingly compelled to observe rather strict arrangements in what concerns time to achieve post-graduation studies. Actually European equivalence and mobility procedures in the framework of the Bologna process will not allow for considerable heterogeneity in this light. Nevertheless research carried recently on four Portuguese higher education institutions' MSc. and PhD programmes revealed there is still a large amount of diversity among average time spells required to complete identical degrees. This outcome suggests that under strict time arrangements Bologna 2nd. and 3rd. cycles rate of success will widely vary among higher education institutions. Individual longitudinal data relative to a representative sample of the abovementioned MSc. and PhD. trajectories allows us to adjust a duration model and thereby investigate some of the main features behind those so different time spells, that is to say so heterogeneous success patterns. A quite meaningful "school effect" revealed to be one of the most striking outcomes.Research developed in the framework of Science and Technology Foundation Project Telos II (POCTI/CED/46747/2002)

Education,vocational training and R&D: Towards new forms of labor market regulation

A draft version of this paper has been presented at the RLDWL 7th. Congress "Labor and Sustainable Development", University of Beijing - 9-12 June 2010.Labor market regulation and its relations with education and training have been performing an historical trajectory which closely intertwined with developments in economic thought. Under the form of human capital theories, neo-classical economics set the bridge between labor market equilibrium and education outputs for decades. The functionalist approach behind that lasting relationship was to be challenged by economic crises and globalization, which imposed the unquestionable supremacy of the demand for skilled work. Likewise, even if only that more strict perspective of education would prevail, which fortunately is not the case, time and hazard came to undertake its denigration on the grounds of a severe loss of regulatory efficiency as globalization was setting up. In this paper we shed light on the increasing role which innovation is called to perform in labor market hetero regulation in the present phase of globalization. Depending on the institutional design throughout which R&D become embedded in nowadays societies, evidence clearly reveals how innovation strategies are to be found so asymmetrically implemented between developed and developing countries, thereby leading to the enlarging divide between the "new North" and "new South" globalization off springs

Interruptions and failure in higher education: evidence from ISEG-UTL

Abstract Failure in Higher Education (HE) is the outcome of multiple time-dependent determinants. Interruptions in student’s individual school trajectories are one of them and that’s why research on this topic has been attracting much attention these days. From an individual point of view, it is expected that interruptions in school trajectory, whatever the reason, influence success in undergraduate programs either this success is measured by time required to obtain a degree, the scores obtained in some more “critical” subjects in these programs or the number of enrolment registrations. Nevertheless, performing a paid job during interruption may in given circumstances positively affect academic success on account of the combination between learning and occupational experience The study of interruptions’ impact on failure in HE is also important to help Education institutions at all grades to think about changes in organisational procedures, class timetables, syllabuses contents or teachers recruitment and training in order to fight this problem. From a social and political point of view, interruptions are also a matter of concern since failure in HE affects individual’s lifelong learning opportunities, distort public funding allocation efficiency to HE institutions and create lag effects in the desired/planned outcomes of HE production functions. So, research on the impact of interruptions on failure in HE is important to support policy measures definition related to the articulation between Upper Secondary and HE programs. In previous research we have shed some light into the determinants of failure in 1st year of HE studies using longitudinal data on ISEG’s undergraduate students. A further insight into this database revealed the existence of a meaningful number of students with interruptions in their school trajectories either in the transition from Upper Secondary to HE or within HE programs. In this paper our major concern is to find some evidence on interruptions effects on HE failure among ISEG students using a life cycle approach with control group. We are interested in knowing whether the above mentioned effects are gender and/or specific graduation program neutral. We also want to search if work experience may counter balance the effect of interruption on academic success. We hope to be able to derive some useful recommendations to address policy making in the fields of pedagogic methodologies in HE, articulation between academic and occupational learning in the framework of Bologna Chart and public funding/fellowship policies in HE.Key words: Portuguese Higher Education; Interruption; Failure; Adult Students; Bologna Chart; Policy Implications