Publication on Educational Zones in the Balearic Islands’ Education Yearbook 2025

On October 16, 2025, in Palma, Antoni Verger presented the study “Les zones educatives com a espais de governança escolar i col·laboració docent: del treball en xarxa a la corresponsabilitat” (with Edgar Quilabert, Mauro Moschetti, and Marcel Pagès Martín) at the launch of the 18th edition of the Illes Balears Education Yearbook, directed by Joan Amer Fernández and published by the Fundació Guillem Cifre de Colonya, the Universitat de les Illes Balears, and the Govern de les Illes Balears. The Yearbook of Education aims to spark public debate on education in the region, and this year’s edition opened with the team’s chapter.

The chapter’s argument

School autonomy policies strengthened decision-making within individual schools but proved insufficient to address structural challenges, often leaving vulnerable schools isolated. Like other regional education systems, the Balearic system is characterised by weak inter-school coordination. Educational zones are therefore proposed as an alternative governance approach: bounded territorial units based on collaboration, shared responsibility, and a network logic that aims to go beyond the limitations of both hierarchical control and market competition. Their effectiveness, however, depends on sufficient role specialisation, professionalised coordination, and stable resources; without these conditions, education zone approaches risk becoming merely symbolic policies.

Three reviewed cases

Around sixty people attended, including PPGE faculty and education authorities from Espírito Santo. That mix was useful: researchers engaged with the theoretical foundations of the model, while practitioners could judge whether it was feasible. Much of the session went into questions about how the idea travels — whether it resonates in Brazil, whether local experience already points in this direction, and where the institutional obstacles might appear.