De la régulation par l’offre scolaire à la régulation par la demande : le cas de Lisbonne

Abstract

This articles reports the main results of an empiric study done as part of a much wider research project on the emergence of new modes of regulation in educational policies. We analyse here the paths taken by the students in the transition period at the end of their compulsory schooling and beginning of secondary school in a group of nine schools of a defined urban area close to Lisbon, Portugal. The results show that (contrary to the unchanging criteria of school districts boundaries) schools in the same area don't have the same importance in the way children are attracted to them. The study also shows that the relations between supply and demand, the principals' policies to attract students, and the families' strategies for "choosing a school" create an interdependency area between those schools. It promotes the emergence of a new mode of regulation, compromise between educational policies and actions.