{"id":782,"date":"2021-01-12T15:00:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T18:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanas.blog.scielo.org\/en\/?p=782"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:31:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T16:31:20","slug":"expanding-boundaries-of-the-education-privatization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanas.blog.scielo.org\/en\/2021\/01\/12\/expanding-boundaries-of-the-education-privatization\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding boundaries of the education privatization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando C\u00e1ssio, Assistant Professor in the Center for Natural and Human Sciences at the Federal University of ABC, Santo Andr\u00e9, SP, Brazil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image: Fernando C\u00e1ssio.<\/p><\/div>\n

Beyond the transfer of assets and responsibilities from the public to the private sector, the privatization of education can be seen, in a broader sense, as a continuous process of reorganization and reformulation of the State itself. As a diffuse phenomenon, the progressively blurring boundaries between public and private challenges the methods enshrined in research on privatization of education, stimulating the production of analyses less focused on \u201cgovernment\u201d than on \u201cgovernance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The article \u201cHeterarchization of the State and the expanding boundaries of education privatization in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>\u201d, published in Educa\u00e7\u00e3o & Sociedade (vol. 41), deals with these analytical challenges and investigates the densification of public-private networks in the largest public-school system in Brazil between 2015 and 2018. The study by C\u00e1ssio, Avelar, Travitzki and Novaes takes the public-private partnership between the Secretariat of Education of the Brazilian State of S\u00e3o Paulo and the non-profit organization Partners of Education Association (Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Parceiros da Educa\u00e7\u00e3o) around the Program Education \u2013 S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Commitment (Educa\u00e7\u00e3o \u2013 Compromisso de S\u00e3o Paulo) as a model to analyze State heterarchization processes.<\/p>\n

The authors developed an algorithm that identifies co-occurrences of words in extensive physical digitalized documents and infers networks of relationships between actors, organizations and public policies. Based on the administrative process for monitoring the Program \u2013 which includes a large volume of drafts, contracts and amendments, technical reports, work plans, accountability reports, memoranda, and program modeling \u2013, C\u00e1ssio et al. (2020) analyzed the privatization of education in its procedural dimension, produced simultaneously with\/by individuals and institutions, with\/by governmental and non-governmental agents.<\/p>\n

The study described three dynamics of complexification of the privatization of education in S\u00e3o Paulo: 1) the formal incorporation of a private organization in the governance structure of public education; 2) the porosity between education policies and the mobility of the private organization beyond the initial scope of the contracted partnership; and 3) the role of the private organization in expanding the governance network, acting as a boundary spanner and facilitating the entry of other private organizations via secondary and tertiary partnerships. These dynamics point to a deepening of the processes of neoliberalization and heterarchization of the State, which dilute roles and functions of governments and forge horizontal and vertical bonds that lead public institutions, private organizations and individuals to compete in decision-making and, also, in planning and executing education policies in the largest Brazilian public-school system.<\/p>\n

The article results from the research \u201cEducation Policy in the S\u00e3o Paulo State Public-School System (1995 to 2018)<\/a>\u201d, supported by the S\u00e3o Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp), and also derives from other recent productions from Public-School and University Network<\/a> (REPU).<\/p>\n