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Networks in action: new actors and practices in education policy in Brazil

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02680939.2013.831949

1464-5106

Eneida Oto Shiroma,

Global Educational Policies and Reforms

AbstractThis paper focuses on the role of networks in the policy-making process in education and discusses the potential of network analysis as an analytical tool for education policy research. Drawing on publically available data from personal or institutional websites, this paper reports the findings from research carried out between 2005 and 2011. Through document analysis, we investigated the composition, activities and strategies adopted by an important policy network in Latin America and traced its developments in Brazil. We adopted the categories – texts, technical artefacts, human beings and money – proposed by Callon to identify the links between the main actors and organizations in that network and drew our conceptual framework from the work of Gramsci in order to analyse the struggle for hegemony and the role of business interests in education policy-making. The findings show that the expansion of networks does not replace the State in education, but rather the State constitutes a strategic node in these networks.Keywords: education policypolicy networkshegemony AcknowledgementsI am very grateful to Jenny Ozga for her comments on the earlier version of this article and to Kátia Carvalho Lopes, research assistant in this project funded by the CNPq-Brazil.Notes1. The National Board of Education responsibilities are normative, deliberative and advisory to the Minister of Education, the functions and powers of the federal government in education; it formulates and evaluates the national education policy.2. The circulation of the magazine Nova Escola, in June 2011, was about 800,000 copies.3. Brazil is a federation of 26 states, one federal district and more than 5560 municipalities, each one with its own education system. The federal government has little direct leverage because public schooling in Brazil's 184,000 primary and secondary public schools, serving 44 million children, is the responsibility of state and municipal governments. To effect change, the federal Ministry of Education needs to mobilize the 27 states' governments and 5561 municipal governments to undertake the desired reforms and investments.4. The Network join the following organizations: Brazil (Todos pela Educação), Perú (Empresarios por la Educación), Argentina (EducAr 2050), Chile (Educación 2020), Colombia (Empresarios por la Educación), Ecuador (Grupo Faro), El Salvador (FEPADE), Guatemala (Empresarios por la Educación), Honduras (FEREMA), Panamá (Unidos por la Educación), Paraguay (Juntos por la Educación), República Dominicana (Acción por la Educación) and México (Mexicanos Primero). Cf. http://www.todospelaeducacao.org.br/comunicacao-e-midia/noticias/18886/movimentos-criam-rede-latino-americana-de-organizacoes-da-sociedade-civil-pela-educacao/16.09.2011.5. Resolução CNE/CP n° 1, de 15 de maio de 2006 (Brasil Citation2006).6. The Index of Basic Education Development (Ideb) was created in 2007 to measure the quality of each school and each school system. The indicator is calculated, every two years, based on student performance on assessments and approval rates.The average of cities indexes generates the state IDEB and the average of all indexes creates the national IDEB. The Brazilian schools' challenge is to achieve IDEB 6, comparable to OECD countries education quality, by 2022.7. This Program is originated from FUNDESCOLA, a project funded by the WB in Brazil in the 90s.8. Portaria Normativa n. 14, de 21 de maio de 2010 (Brasil Citation2010).9. Some of Braudel Institute directors are chairman of IAD Board such as Roberto Teixeira da Costa, or members of Preal Norman Gall and Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro (see Box 1).10. The Institute is supported by foundations of many companies (GE, Ford, Tinker Foundation, General Electric, Odebrecht), banks (Itaú Social, Unibanco) and other institutions (the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation, World Fund and the Open Society Institute).11. The CDES was created in 2003 as a consultative board of the President of the Republic, formed mostly by civil society actors – workers, entrepreneurs, social movements and individuals of recognized competence and leadership in their fields.