Performativity and education: wide-scale evaluation policies and media appropriation

• Main Author: Rosimar Serena Siqueira Esquinsani
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa 2010-12-01
• Series: Práxis Educativa
• Subjects: Mídia; Educação; Avaliação em larga escala; Performatividade; Desempenho; Media; Education; Wide-scale Evaluation; Performativity; Performance
• Online Access: http://www.revistas2.uepg.br/index.php/praxiseducativa/article/view/1023/1390

The present paper addresses the wide-scale evaluation in Basic Education and the issue of performativity, both discussed in light of the appropriation of the mainstream media as a structure that embodies and somehow puts into perspective the debate over national education and its principles of quality, in the sense of condensing the discussion (and the views) about the quality of the schools. To this end, the text draws on documentary sources consisting of 1,924 media products collected from the information available online on the websites of three major weekly magazines of national circulation, in a time window from 1996 to 2007. In conclusion, the text points out that the media reinforces the performance-oriented aspects of the wide-scale evaluations in the context of the State as an evaluative agent, as it publicizes the scores and indicators of the schools and schooling systems, therefore making them relevant and focusing on the competition and performance as quality parameters.