Almerindo Janela Afonso

Estado, mercado, comunidade e avaliação: esboço para uma rearticulação crítica

The central role of evaluation within the context of contemporary educational policies has been the object of many sociological studies, although the signs of their reception in Portugal are still quite tenuous. The present work seeks an understanting of political and economical changes in contexts where the conservative and neoliberal rebirth took place earlier, in order to draw some of their implications over the renewal of the educational and evaluation studies. Since the redefinition of the role of the State and the recovering of the market ideology are two of the essential dimensions of these changes, the role of educational evaluation will be analysed with reference to them. A further (re)articulation will look at evaluation in relation to the community within an emancipatory, rather than regulatory, perspective. From the adopted theoretical framework a succinct reference will be made to the specific nature of changes in educational evaluation occurring in Portugal in the early 90s.

Para uma concetualização alternativa de accountability em educação

In the last two or three decades, the issue of accountability has been enclosed in the logic of the neoconservative and neoliberal single thought. It is therefore necessary to show that there are others alternatives. In this regard, this paper adopts a critical approach and briefly revisits the concept of accountability (that is, the interaction between evaluation, answerability and enforcement) in order to draw attention to the need for models that could be more democratic. By reference to this same question, the author indicates some trends underway in Portugal and other European countries.

Reforma do estado e políticas educacionais: entre a crise do estado-nação e a emergência da regulação supranacional

The text starts with a few previous observations that help the reader to position the author as far as the analysed thematic is concerned. Then, having a sociology of education policy as a reference, the author tries to situate the crisis of the Nation-State and its implications in order to look into some of the dimensions of education. At last, he makes an outline of the reform of the State, which is mainly based on the restraints deriving from the new supranational regulation instances/agencies.

State, globalisation and educational policies: some issues for the research agenda

Seguindo, genericamente, os termos de referencia do debate academico em contexto portugues e europeu, esse artigo procura por em evidencia alguns dos eixos e condicionantes das politicas educacionais actuais, tendo como pano de fundo a redefinicao do papel do Estado. Embora essa tematica possa ser abordada a partir de perspectivas teorico-conceptuais diferenciadas, o autor privilegia um enfoque sociologico, comecando por fazer uma alusao critica e sucinta as (velhas) teorias do Estado. Em um segundo momento, algumas das alternativas de analise emergentes sao brevemente enunciadas, procurando nao apenas chamar a atencao para novas formas de actuacao do Estado, como, tambem, sinalizando algumas condicionantes decorrentes dos processos de globalizacao na configuracao das politicas educacionais contemporâneas.

Mudanças no Estado-avaliador: comparativismo internacional e teoria da modernização revisitada

After reviewing some of the features of the first phase of the evaluative State, the practice outlined in this article starts by briefly revisiting the (old) modernization theory before suggesting that some of its assumptions continue to a large extent to underlie the current international evaluative comparativism. This has become an increasingly dominant political agenda, at least since the late 1990s. Indeed, such period corresponds to what the author calls the second phase (or reconfiguration) of the evaluative State. The article further seeks to raise some questions and hypotheses about a third phase (the post-evaluative State phase) which, although as yet poorly defined, may become part of the continued capitalist expansion of policies of privatization and commodification of education (and evaluation).

Questões, objetos e perspetivas em avaliação

O texto pretende revisitar e sinalizar alguns problemas que se colocam ao campo da avaliacao educacional. Tendo em conta o ensino nao superior, o autor faz a critica a excessiva centralidade da avaliacao dos alunos, a qual tem vindo a subordinar-se (frequentemente de forma contraditoria e com consequencias muito discutiveis) a avaliacao institucional das escolas, a avaliacao do desempenho profissional dos professores e, mesmo, a avaliacao das politicas educacionais. Chamando a atencao para a necessidade de constituir como objeto de estudo as conexoes e interacoes entre as diferentes formas de avaliacao, o artigo tambem coloca em causa as chamadas politicas de responsabilizacao, e sublinha, em consequencia disso, ser urgente pensar em formas alternativas de accountability.

Educação, cidadania e competividade: questões em torno de uma nova agenda

Ha alguns anos tem-se firmado o debate em torno de uma agenda politica e teorica que procura defender e sustentar uma articulacao possivel entre a procura de competitividade das economias e a manutencao e desenvolvimento dos direitos, nomeadamente sociais, que viabilizam e constituem condicoes de cidadania. Neste debate, que e atravessado por distintas posicoes, argumentos e propostas, a educacao e formacao sao apontadas como eixos decisivos daquela articulacao. A nossa argumentacao vai no sentido de mobilizar analises e investigacoes em Ciencias Sociais, trazendo para o centro da discussao questoes e problemas que frequentemente tem sido omitidos. Defendemos que, pelo contrario, e do confronto dessas questoes e problemas que depende a possibilidade de constituir uma agenda politica e teorica merecedora de credito para uma via de desenvolvimento humana, social e ecologicamente sustentavel.

The promised land: school autonomy, evaluation and curriculum decision making in Portugal

Portuguese education continues to be profoundly influenced by an historical tradition in which a strong political and administrative centralisation is prominent. The school ‘autonomy’ that exists has to be conceptualised in largely ‘instrumental’ terms — an autonomy merely of process and of implementation.

PROTAGONISMOS INSTÁVEIS DOS PRINCÍPIOS DE REGULAÇÃO E INTERFACES PÚBLICO/PRIVADO EM EDUCAÇÃO

Throughout the course of capitalist modernity, in a space of growing defence of national borders, building and entrenching unequal positions and relations, the State, the market and the community have been the leading actors of social regulation. The protagonism of one (usually the State) tended to be accompanied by the retraction, curtailment or subordination of the others, simultaneously or not, to very different degrees according to the historical context and social, cultural, economic and political/ideological changes. These unstable protagonisms of the (old) principles of social regulation have been confronted with the profound changes and transitions of the last few decades, making way for the inter-penetrations, hybridisms and ambivalences, in contexts now (also) marked by protagonisms that have emerged from other forms of social regulation, at a national, international and transnational level. The public/private interfaces, and the plurality of market and quasi-market expressions in education, can be read with this vaster backdrop.

Changes in the evaluative State: international comparativism and the theory of modernization revisited

After reviewing some of the features of the first phase of the evaluative State, the practice outlined in this article starts by briefly revisiting the (old) modernization theory before suggesting that some of its assumptions continue to a large extent to underlie the current international evaluative comparativism. This has become an increasingly dominant political agenda, at least since the late 1990s. Indeed, such period corresponds to what the author calls the second phase (or reconfiguration) of the evaluative State. The article further seeks to raise some questions and hypotheses about a third phase (the post-evaluative State phase) which, although as yet poorly defined, may become part of the continued capitalist expansion of policies of privatization and commodification of education (and evaluation).