Given the exploratory nature of the study and the research questions, the case study– qualitative approach– is seen to be the most appropriate method. The case study method was chosen for this research because it offers a suitable mechanism for exploring in depth, areas that have little well developed theory and it has demonstrated this value in the social sciences, particularly in relation to schools and the community. Cases, especially exploratory case studies, are also an effective mechanism for the development of theory 1, 2.
This study was limited to exhaustive study of partnerships in an entity, the Verde Horizonte Group of Schools (AEVH) in Mação, Portugal, and is therefore an intensive study of a specific state education institution. The option to carry out the research in a single state school followed the criterion of analysing a school in an inland region of the country which is predominantly rural, depressed and distant from major centres, and comprehension of partnerships formed by the school with local and regional bodies to promote entrepreneurship education. Choosing this school in particular was not based on the conviction it was representative of Portuguese state schools, but rather through being a school in the inland region belonging to the Network of Schools of Excellence (ESCXEL), which has provided its pupils, at the various levels of education, with various programmes of entrepreneurial education (EEP), from the academic year of 2009/2010. One of the programmes in entrepreneurial education developed was that of“EMPRE-Business at School”, promoted by Tagusvalley-Vale do Tejo Technological Centre, resulting from the formation of a set of partnerships between the School Group and various local and regional bodies, which this study aims to analyse and understand. The figure below shows the partners involved in implementing this programme to stimulate entrepreneurial education in AEVH.
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