Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 21:5 (2022) ► pp.742–762

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Policy discourse in times of crisis

Debating educational policy in Portugal in the years of austerity

ORCiD logo with link | Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia
Published online: 9 March 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21054.alv
Abstract
The current paper explores the relation between deliberation, political legitimization and decision making in educational policy in the aftermath of the intervention by the troika in Portugal in 2011. Centring on political debates about equal opportunities in education in the Portuguese parliament, it explores how arguments, such as ‘crisis’ and ‘change’, were employed to frame – and covertly promote – a concession of sovereignty to international organizations and legitimize a turn in policy-making to an austerity doctrine regarding education policies. Findings reveal the interplay between a loose and polyphonic discourse of international organizations, and the construction of a narrative of failure regarding educational policies previously adopted, recontextualized and thus enabled the change towards neoliberal policies in Portuguese education policies, bringing about a leaner concept of equal opportunities in education at the national level.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Analysing political deliberation in parliament: A complementary approach
  • 3.The morphogenesis of discourse in the Portuguese Parliament
    • 3.1How to argue: The normative order
    • 3.2Reasons for debate: The argumentative game
      • 3.2.1Crisis
      • 3.2.2Change
        • The ideas of ‘complacency’, rigour, and quality of success
    • 3.3Intertextualities: The disputable authority over policies
    • 3.4Framing ideas: When policy emerges
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
References (45)
References
Álvares, Maria. 2020. “Discursive shifts: crisis and equity in Portuguese education policies” PhD diss. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL). [URL]
. 2018. “Fault Lines in Education; Dualization and diversification of pathways over 40 years of debate on education policy in Portugal”, Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas 871: 45–7. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Álvares, Maria e Alexandre Calado. 2014. “Insucesso e Abandono Escolar: os Programas de Apoio” [School Failure: support policies] in Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues. (org.) [40 years of Education Policies in Portugal. Volume I: the construction of the democratic education system.] Lisbon: Almedina. 197–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antunes, Fátima. 2006. “Globalization and Europeanisation of Education Policies: routes, processes and metamorphoses.” European Educational Research Journal 51: 38–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ball, Stephen. 2001. “Global Policies and Vernacular Politics in Education”, Currículo sem Fronteiras 1(2): 27–43.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barroso, João. 2010. “Knowledge, actors and policy” Sísifo 121: 37–48.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blanchard, Olivier. 2006. “Adjustment within the euro. The difficult case of Portugal”. Port. Econ. J. 6: 1–21 (2007). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blyth, Mark. 2013. “Paradigms and paradox: The politics of economic ideas in two moments of crisis”. Governance 26(2): 197–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Phillip, and Stuart Tannock. 2009. “Education, Meritocracy and the Global War for Talent.” Journal of Education Policy 24 (4): 377–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijk, Teun A. Van. 2003. “Knowledge in parliamentary debates.” Journal of Language and Politics 21: 93–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Ideology and Discourse. A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Online. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eemeren, Frans H. van. 2010. Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discouse. Edited by Frans Eemeren and Bart Garssen. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. “Intertextuality in Critical Discourse Analysis.” Linguistics and Education 4 (3–4): 269–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferrera, Maurizio, Anton Hemerijck and Martin Rhodes. 2001. “The Future of the European “Social Model” in the Global Economy. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 31:163–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finlayson, Alan. 2007. “From beliefs to arguments: Interpretive methodology and rhetorical political analysis” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9(4): 545–563. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer, Frank & Herbert Gottweis. 2013 “The argumentative turn in public policy revisited: Twenty years later.” Critical Policy Studies 7(9): 425–433. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischman, Gustavo E., Amelia Marcetti Topper, Iveta Silova, Janna Goebel, and Jessica L. Holloway. 2019. “Examining the Influence of International Large-Scale Assessments on National Education Policies.” Journal of Education Policy 34 (4): 470–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franco, José E. 2020. A Europa ao espelho de Portugal. [Europe as seen through the eyes of Portugal] Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores. Coleção Ideias e Debates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freeden, Michael. 2003. Ideology: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hajer, Maarten. 2002. “Discourse Analysis and the Study of Policy Making.” European Political Science 2 (1): 61–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A. 1993. “Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain.” Comparative Politics 25(3): 275–296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hay, Colin. 1996. “Narrating Crisis: The Discursive Construction of the ‘Winter Of Discontent.” Sociology 30 (2): 253–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ilie, Cornelia. 2016. “Parliamentary Discourse and Deliberative Rhetoric” in Parliament and Parliamentarism: A Comparative History of a European Concept. Edited by Pasi Ihalainen, Cornelia Ilie and Kari Palonen. Oxford: Berghahn Books. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Justino, David. 2010. Difícil é educá-los. [Difficult to educate them] Lisboa. Ensaios da Fundação. Fundação Francisco Manuel dos SantosGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kingdon, John. 2011. Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies. Boston: Longman (2ªedition) (original edition, 1984).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Policy, policy communication and discursive shifts: Analyzing EU policy discourses on climate change.” In Analyzing Genres in Political Communication: Theory and practice edited by Piotr Cap and Urszula Okulska. Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture vol 501: 101–133. Amsterdam, John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “Discursive Shifts in Ethno-Nationalist Politics: On Politicization and Mediatization of the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Poland.” Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 16 (1–2): 76–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Discursive Shifts and the Normalisation of Racism: Imaginaries of Immigration, Moral Panics and the Discourse of Contemporary Right-Wing Populism.” Social Semiotics 30 (4): 503–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto. 1996. Emancipation(s). London: VersoGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Majone, Giandomenico. 1989. Evidence, argument, and persuasion in the policy process. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marques, Maria Aldina. 2007. “Discordar no Parlamento: estratégias de documentação” [Disagreeing in Parliament: documentation strategies] Revista Galega de Filoloxía (8): 99–124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Argumentar em tempos de crise no Parlamento português” [Arguing in times of crisis in the Portuguese Parliament] Revista Portuguesa de Humanidades 19(1): 99–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nóvoa, António & Martin Lawn. 2002. Fabricating Europe. The Formation of an Education Space. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
OECD. 2010. PISA 2009 Results: Overcoming Social Background – Equity in Learning Opportunities and Outcomes (Volume II1). Paris: OECD Publishing. Available in: Acessed in 10/09/2019Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rocco, Philip and Chloe Thurston. 2013. “From Metaphors to Measures: Observable Indicators of Gradual Institutional Change.” Journal of Public Policy 341: 35–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Santos, Íris & Kauko Jaakko. 2020. “Externalisations in the Portuguese parliament: analysing power struggles and (de-)legitimation with Multiple Streams Approach.” Journal of Education Policy, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, Vivien. 2010. “Taking ideas and discourse seriously: explaining change through discursive institutionalism as the fourth ‘“new institutionalism’.” European Political Science Review 2(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schön, Donald, and Martin Rein. 1994. Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shannon, Denise. 2019. “A Tale of a Discursive Shift: Analysing EU Policy Discourses in Irish Adult Education Policy -- From the White Paper to the Further Education and Training Strategy.” Adult Learner (0790-8040): 98–117.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith Ochoa, Christopher. 2020. “Trivializing Inequality by Narrating Facts: A Discourse Analysis of Contending Storylines in Germany.” Critical Policy Studies 14 (3): 319–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steiner, Jürg. 2008. “Concept stretching: The case of deliberation” European Political Science 7(2): 186–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevens, Katharina, and Daniel Cohen. 2019. “The attraction of the ideal has no traction on the real: on adversariality and roles in argument” Argumentation and Advocacy 55 (1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer. (eds.). 2001. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: SAGE Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wood, Mathew. 2014. “Puzzling and powering in policy paradigm shifts: politicization, depoliticization and social learning.” Critical Policy Studies 91: 37–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue