Beyond simplistic metrics in educational research: The continuous relevance of Freire’s impact

Abstract

The practice of measuring the impact of research using indirect metrics, such as the impact factor of journals in the field of Social Sciences and, more specifically, in the field of Education, has gained strength both in Brazil and in the world. These evaluation processes produce distortions that we call simplimetrification, since they measure the quality of research without evaluating relevance, only indirectly using the number of articles published in scientific journals with high impact factor, or, in the case of Brazil, well ranked in Qualis. In this article, we criticize this model of evaluation of educational research, based on reflections on the scientific, pedagogical and political impact of Freire's works. Paulo Freire's publications defy almost all current definitions of who is an impactful researcher and thus, he most likely would not be admitted to a Brazilian graduate program. This is very ironic, since Freire is one of the most cited authors in contemporary Social Sciences. In this work we conclude that the Freirean example confirms the importance for researchers to make their work accessible and usable by different audiences. Access and engagement set the pillars to strengthen the usability of contemporary educational research.