Avaliação da educação superior: um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e Portugal

Abstract

ABSTRACT In order to understand the transformations in higher education in the context of globalization and internationalization, it is necessary to consider the evaluation practices in this educational area. From the theoretical point of view there is a strong tension between two international assessment trends, differentiation and homogenization, which form part of the evaluation systems of Higher Education adopted in several countries and seem to be contradictory. The first trend, differentiation, is associated with the appreciation of local contexts, to specific institutions and with the strengthening of institutional values and missions with their own vocations. The second trend emphasizes international review of homogenization and standardization of assessment criteria, in consideration of the fact that the process of globalization has led to very similar organizational systems in their formal policies and structures. It is very important to understand the relations between the two models and the two international trends, especially when it comes to an analysis which is not only theoretical, but also based on the evaluation practices of national systems in two countries – Brazil and Portugal – that have taken different paths, though presenting similarities with respect to this topic. This research aims to analyze and compare the higher education evaluation systems in both countries and identify common and different aspects, especially concerning the characteristics of universality and specificity in the evaluation practices. In order to perform this analysis, a bibliographic study was conducted and qualitative information was collected under a relatively open, flexible planning approach, by means of semi-structured interviews. Eighteen interviewees participated, nine from Brazil and nine from Portugal, constituting a representative sample of prominent experts dealing with the conception and implementation of the evaluation systems in both countries. A case study was carried out so patterns of similarities and differences could be identified, considering that categories of analysis selected. The main results indicate that standardized evaluation has become an important tool for the implementation of the educational agenda in both countries, to the detriment of appraisals of institutional differentiations. Nevertheless, the Portuguese higher education institutions have been granted more autonomy to develop their internal evaluation processes, whereas in Brazil educative and regulative evaluation have overlapped within the same system, which has caused tensions and difficulties concerning the understanding of the goals and objectives of both evaluation modalities. In Portugal the separation is more noticeable, since they constitute different yet complementary steps. Also, in Brazil there is a low level of internationalization and still very little no integration with the system of other Mercosur countries. In Portugal, evaluation focuses primarily on the courses in general, with no mechanism to undertake a strategic review of each institution as an organizational entity.