Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the complex interplay between educational systems, global policies and the students strategies in imagining a future in urban Portugal. Considering the fourth goal on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we question how it has been understood and debated locally.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, we take in consideration the global reconfiguration of education and its impact in national educational policies, seeking to understand how local practices respond to such transformations. The most recent reform of the Portuguese educational system advocates an explicit articulation with both local and global stakeholders and reflects what has been a crescent focus on education as a privileged driving force for development. A key element to the design of the educational reform was the promulgation of a document entitled The Student's profile by the end of compulsory education, a model for designing future policies regarding education, establishing global citizenship as one of its primary goals. Our research focus on representations about the future from students at the end of compulsory education that have experienced the schooling process amidst a crescent focus on global citizenship and an overall uncertainty regarding the future. We consider the educational communities of public schools in Almada, a large post-industrial town in Lisbon Metropolitan Area. As educational reforms are set in motion, we ask how the global stakeholders are influencing the design of a renewed role and representation of education in Portuguese society. Considering the fourth goal on the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we question how it has been understood and debated locally, taking in account the Portuguese context. This paper inquires about the global dialogues impacting on new forms of subjectivity both as a consequence of the schooling process and of negotiations between agents and institutions.