Analysis of Educational Policies

Code:

DE203

Acronym:

APE

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

Instance: 2016/2017 - 1S

Active?	No
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	0	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	-

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

The curricular unit Education Policy Analysis (EPA) aims at providing students with
competences to analyse texts, discourses and 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 EPA intends to broaden the analysis of the nature of political discourses and practices and to identify 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 know theories and methodologies in field of policy studies in education.
- To relate mandates addressed to education at a global, national and local levels.
- To analyse education policies in Portugal in the context of globalization and knowledge society.

Learning outcomes and competences

Competences:

- Identification of theoretical and methodological implications of the approaches for the policy analysis.
- Identification of the political ‘themes’ in educational policies.
- Categorization of the arguments driven by schools of political thought.


Learning outcomes:
- Performing analyse educational policies

Working method

Presencial

Program

I. The scope of the social and educational policies analysis

1. What is policy: policy as text, policy as discourse and policy as social change
2. political process: The role of the state and education governance
3. Social and educational policies analysis: three projects for the study of education policy -
The project of the social sciences.
4. Globalization, social policy and socialpractice:international and supranational
organizations and definition of policies for education.

II. Theories and methods

1. Theories:
1.1 Institutionalism and New
Institutionalism;
1.2 Marxism;
1.3 Interpretative Theory
2. The ‘policy cycle’ analytic model
3. The deconstruction of policy documents
4. Methods:
4.1 Discourse analysis

III. The discursive matrices of educational discourses

1. Classical liberalism;
2. Social-democratic liberalism
3. Neoliberalism (the market regulation) –
3.1.The Austrian school and the Chicago School

IV - Thematic axes of analysis of education
policies

1. Educational system and regulation;
1.1 Globalization and semiperipheral position of Portugal in the world system and the specificities of the Portuguese State;
1.2 Europeanisation in education policies.
2. Autonomy, accountability and choice;
2.1 The reconfiguration of the educational mandate in the context of the knowledge
and economy of knowledge.
3. Educational Policy and Educational Evaluation

Mandatory literature

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

Teaching methods and learning activities

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

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	25,00
Trabalho escrito	75,00
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 laboratorial	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:

i. Participation in the tasks distributed in each session
ii. Elaboration of a scheme to develop a scientific paper
iii. Writing a 3000 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. The implication of the students in tasks i. will be evaluated with a maximum of 25% of the 0-20 scale. The draft of the paper referred to in ii. and the paper referred to in iii. will be assessed with a maximum of 75% of the 0-20 scale. The final mark is the result of the sum of the two components of the process [(i+ii) + iii] = final mark). The tasks i. and ii. Without the final paper will not be evaluated. In this situation, students can use the extra assessment forms

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