Educational Policy Analysis

Code:

DE209

Acronym:

PE

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Social Studies/Public Policies / Educational Sciences

Instance: 2021/2022 - 1S (since 13-09-2021 to 17-12-2021)

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	https://sigarra.up.pt/fpceup/pt/ucurr_adm.ficha_uc_edit?pv_ocorrencia_id=426385
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Master Degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MCED	11	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	49	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

The curricular unit aims at providing students with
competences to analyse the texts, the discourses and the political processes in education, by identifying their discursive matrices and the mandates addressed to the social systems by the actors involved in the policy process. The curricular unit intends to broaden the analysis of  political discourses and practices and to their social and educational effects. Having in mind the profile of graduates aimed at, this latter dimension pretends to develop individual, social and professional reflexivity and, by doing so, to create the conditions for the exercise of the ‘sociological imagination’, i.e., the competence to build and to propose alternatives.

Objectives:
- To identify the discursive matrixes of educational discourses.
- To relate mandates addressed to education at a global, national and local levels.
- To know theories and methodologies in field of policy studies in education.
To analyse texts of education policies.

Learning outcomes and competences

Competences:

- Identification of methodological approaches of education policy analysis and the implications of political discourse analysis theoretical-methodological assumptions.
- Identification of the political ‘themes’ in educational policies.



Learning outcomes:
- Performing analyse educational policies

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

n.a.

Program

I. The scope of the social and educational policies analysis

• What is policy: policy as text, policy as discourse and policy as social change;


• Political process: The role of the state and education governance;


• Three projects for the study of education policy. The project of the social sciences.

II. Discursive matrices of educational discourses

• Classical liberalism;


• Social-democratic liberalism;


• Neoliberalism;


• Hegemony and counter-hegemony of discourses.

III – Theoretical and methological approaches to discourse policy analysis

• From the policy-making process to the theory of political discourse.


• Discourse policy analysis

           - articulations, discursive struggle and fixation of                        meaning;
           - interdiscursivity and intertextuality.


IV - Thematic axes of analysis of education
policies

• Educational system and regulation;


• Education and social inclusion;


• Globalization, education policies and sustainability;


• The reconfiguration of the educational mandate in the context of the knowledge society and economy and digital technologies.

V - Perfoming policy analysis

Mandatory literature

Ball, S.; What is policy? Texts, Trajectories and toolboxes. In Stephen J. Ball, Education Policy and Social Class. The selected works of Stephen J. Ball (pp.44-54). , Routledge, 2006
Magalhães, AM e Stoer, Stephen R.; A escola para todos e a excelência académica, Profedições, 2002. ISBN: 9728562055
Marsh, D. e Stoker, G.; Theory in political science, Palgrave, 2010. ISBN: 9780333750032
Phillips, L. e Jörgensen, M.; Discourse analysis as theory and method, Sage, 2004. ISBN: 9780761971122
Olssen, M., Codd, J. e O'Neill, A-M ; Education policy: globalization, citizenship & democracy, Sage, 2004. ISBN: 9780761974703
Risvi, F e Lingard, B.; Globalizing education policy, Routledge, 2010. ISBN: 9780719575464
Stoer, S. R. e Magalhães, A. M.; A diferença somos nós: a gestão da mudança social e as políticas educativas e sociais, Afrontamento, 2005. ISBN: 9789723607611

Comments from the literature

n.a.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Presentations by the teacher
Debate
Presentations by the students
Individual work
Team work

keywords

Social sciences > Educational sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	30,00
Participação presencial	20,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de projeto	20,00
Estudo autónomo	45,00
Frequência das aulas	33,00
Trabalho de campo	8,00
Trabalho de investigação	34,00
Trabalho escrito	22,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

The students must attend at least 75% of the sessions

Calculation formula of final grade

Distributed evaluation without final exam

The process will develop as follows:

Participation in the tasks distributed in each session (team work)

1. Presentation of a selected text;


2. Presentation of a policy analysis with the following requirements:

• Identification of a problematic (theoretical introduction/ literature review)


• Identification and justification of a methodology for policy analysis


• Analysis of a policy or a corpus of policy texts


• Discussion of the results and conclusion


• References

Writing a 3000 words individual paper (references included) with the following characteristics:

• Identification of a problematic (theoretical introduction/ literature review)


• Identification and justification of a methodology for policy analysis


• Analysis of a policy or a corpus of policy texts


• Discussion of the results and conclusion


• References

The final mark of the curricular unit is expressed in a 0-20 scale. It will take into account the students' involvement in the above tasks. The classification of this involvement will be calculated from a maximum weight of 20% on an entire scale from 0 to 20, in the task related to the presentation of a text previously distributed and 30%, in the task related to the presentation of a policy analysis. The production of an individual work, evaluated from the specified characteristics, will have a weight of 50% on an entire scale from 0 to 20.

The final mark of the curricular unit will result from the average of the sum of the three components. The participation in the tasks distributed in the sessions, without the accomplishment of the individual work, has no final mark. In these cases, students will have to use other assessment forms.

Examinations or Special Assignments

n.a.

Internship work/project

n.a.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

The students legally authorised to not attending the sessions will deliver, besides the paper referred above, two reports on the bibliography about theme 1 and another on about theme 2.

Classification improvement

Those students wishing to improve their evaluation or those who not meet regular procedures can (re)write the paper or be submitted to an oral examination about it

Observations

n.a.