Roma communities are a disadvantaged minority in Europe which is particularly underrepresented in social and educational research. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of Roma mothers' educational aspirations for their children in the Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal. Participants included 461 mothers with a Roma background (135 from…

This article analyzes international students' assessment of remote teaching and learning (T&L) during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. While all students have suffered the consequences of campus lockdowns and distance teaching, international students represent a particularly vulnerable group since, even under normal…

The present paper discusses the potential of the capability approach in conceptualizing and understanding lifelong learning as an agency process, and explores its capacity to guide empirical studies on lifelong learning. It uses data for 20 countries from the Adult Education Survey (2007; 2011) and focuses on aspirations for lifelong learning. The…

A large body of work in educational economics displays the tenuous relationship between school inputs and cognitive achievement. Among others, the inability to establish a strong link has been attributed to the difficulty of controlling for attributes such as ability, motivation, and interest. Against this background, and inspired by work in…

Gypsy children low school engagement, high rates of school dropout, and pervasive school failure are relevant societal challenges that may be explained by Gypsy people cultural mores, but also by the discriminatory behaviors of school peers. The latter may be a consequence of insufficient accurate knowledge of Gypsy culture. The present study…

Low levels of education and dropping out of school are associated with criminal involvement. The Portuguese prison system, similar to other prison systems (e.g. England), offers prison-based educational programmes so inmates can complete compulsory education. However, the completion rate of these educational programmes is low, and the dropout rate…

Early School Leaving in the European Union provides an analysis of early school leaving (ESL) in nine European Union countries, with a particular focus on young people who were previously enrolled in educational institutions inside and outside mainstream secondary education. The comparative approach employed by this volume adds to the existing…

The current debate on child labour focuses on developing countries. However, Portugal is an example of a relatively developed country where child labour is still a matter of concern as between 8% and 12% of Portuguese children may be classified as workers. This paper studies the patterns of child labour in Portugal and assesses the consequences of…

In Portugal, there is a diversified higher education system comprising some 160 institutions: universities, polytechnics and isolated schools, public or private, with a total enrollment of some 350,000 students. This article presents the analysis of the results of questionnaires which were completed in 2004 by students entering higher education…