Evaluation policy in education: the effects of international standards and performativity on Brazil’s postgraduate programmes of excellence

Abstract

The educational reforms that began in the 1990s have changed Brazilian universities’ direction from welfare state institutions to market organisations. In postgraduate education, strategic alliances with international agencies, governments and corporations have become closer. At the same time, there has been a push for internationalisation of knowledge and more efficiency – with quality assurance and accountability systems. This study, based on the theory of ‘policy enactments’ proposed by Stephen Ball and collaborators, aims to analyse the interpretation and translation of Brazil’s postgraduate education programmes’ evaluation policy. The data are derived from interviews with co-ordinators of four Brazilian postgraduate programmes in education – all regarded by the Higher Education Co-ordination Agency, CAPES, as programmes of excellence and of international standard (during the assessment triennials of 2004, 2007 and 2010). The data analysis provided a critical understanding of the evaluation policy as policy enactment, and of the small margin for manoeuvre in decision-making in response to the policy and performativity’s effect on academic subjectivity and collective practice.

Keywords:

• educational reform
• evaluation policy
• postgraduate education
• policy enactment
• performativity

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological of Brazil) funded project entitled Postgraduate evaluation policy in Education: history and recreation in the Programmes of Excellence (triennial 2004, 2007 and 2010). I am grateful to co-ordinators interviewed for making possible this study and reflexions, and to Professor Stephen Ball for providing thoughtful and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I am also indebted to two anonymous reviewers who greatly contributed to its development.

Notes

1. Taken by the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003–2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011–present) centre-left governments, it is possible to observe significant changes in the design and management of policies. In higher education, effective policies were implemented to expand federal educational institutions, such as creating new public universities (campuses and courses). But, paradoxically, it was observed to lack differentiation between the public and private sector with regards to new funding mechanisms for private higher education (Dourado 2010). Projects like: Universidade para Todos (PROUNI), Sistema Nacional de Educação and Lei de Inovação Tecnológica configure higher education’s articulated actions to consolidate public–private partnership policy. In this context, the main thrust of higher education expansion is a private supply subsidised by public resources. ‘The public-private partnership (Inovação and PROUNI) redefines public institutions and contributes to erasing the modern border between public and private, converting education into a commodity and universities into a place of academic capitalism’ (Leher 2004, 868).

2. The Advisory Committee of the Education Area (CA-ED) is designed by CAPES and consists of a group of academic advisors (normally about 26 senior academics), chosen from professors with proven experience and expertise in teaching and mentoring postgraduate research and innovation. They are responsible for co-ordinating, planning and executing the activities related to evaluating postgraduate programmes (Brasil 2010e).

3. The Scientific Technical Council – CTC – is composed of the president of the Council, three CAPES directors, two representatives of each of the major areas (humanities, life sciences, exact sciences, technology and multi-disciplinary) indicated by the representatives of the area, a representative of the National Forum of Deans and a representative of the National Association of Postgraduates.

4. The evaluation form for all programmes presents the weightings, the criteria and items previously established by the CA-Ed and CTC. The criteria are: (a) Programme’s proposal, (b) Permanent staff, (c) Research activities, (d) Teaching activities, (e) Students, (f) Theses and dissertations, (g) Intellectual production.

5. The Advisory Committee of the Education Area (CA-ED) (2004) describes that the criteria adopted for the evaluation of programmes recommended for scores 6 and 7 were established in agreement with the Great Area of Human Sciences (humanities, applied social sciences, languages and linguistics and arts), based on documents drawn together during the triennium: (1) Document of the Greater Area of Humanities, (2) international inclusion and international standards approved by CAPES Scientific and Technical Council (CTC), which defines general concepts and criteria of international inclusion and international standards (Brasil 2004, 4).

6. Hirsch (1976) presents the fullest discussion of positional goods and their economic significance. He distinguishes between goods that are positional because they are physically scarce (like old master artworks and natural landscapes) and those whose scarcity is social (like desirable jobs and social status). Among the socially scarce positional goods, he distinguishes between those that bring satisfaction precisely because they are scarce (snob value) and those that bring satisfaction as a consequence of their intrinsic character (education) but are such that the amount of satisfaction that they bring is influenced by how many others have or are pursuing them.

7. In the CAPES evaluation, the classification of journals and conferences are held by the assessment areas and passed through the annual update (Qualis). These vehicles are classified according to quality strata – with A1 as the highest, then A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and C with zero weight. (Brasil 2010f).