Analyses of educational policies: the policy cycle approach and the contributions of Pierre Bourdieu

Abstract

Public policy research, from its formulation to its implementation, requires consideration of the historical, economic, political, social, and cultural determinants that permeate society. From this perspective, we recognize the dimension of the symbolic power exerted by the pressure groups that define the contours that politics is assuming. In the light of these introductory theories, this paper aims at a reflection that articulates the fundamentals of the policy cycle approach proposed by Stephen Ball and Richard Bowe and the conceptual contributions of Pierre Bourdieu, to analyze the processes of formulation and implementation of educational policies. Therefore, it is a study of a bibliographic nature, evidencing the dialectical movement between the context of influence, of text production and of practice in the and the pertinence of the concepts of habitus, field and symbolic power to analyze the articulation between such contexts. It is concluded that the process of translating politics into practices constitutes almost a play, for which a script is proposed, but whose realization occurs when the subjects represent it. By this bias, the approach of the Policy Cycle points to the investigation of public policies in its processes and macro and micro political developments, and through this bias, the writings of Pierre Bourdieu can contribute to the unveiling of actions, discourses, legal needs and institutional), discordant, inconsistent and contradictory beliefs and values, unequal power relations (of various kinds), absences, and material and contextual constraints of actors who are involved with policies at the global and local levels.