CONTENT ANALYSIS AS METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This article shows the relevance of the epistemological approach in scientific research in the field of education policy and administration, presenting theoretical and conceptual reflections about Content Analysis (CA) and its use as a methodological strategy. It highlights its stages, rules, and procedures according to Bardin (2016), Moraes (1999), Câmara (2013), Silva and Fossá (2015), and Franco (2005), all of whom indicate the aspects to be observed in the analyses that use techniques and procedures proposed by CA. This work also describes how Content Analysis techniques were used in the construction of a dissertation research, detailing the processes of selecting the documentary corpus, reading, and interpreting data. The inferred categories made it possible to establish the interstices that permeated the implementation of the School Management Plans, the new model for selecting school principals and governance strategies, which was adopted in state public schools in Santa Catarina in 2013 and has been in place ever since. This plan, although announced as democratic, presents elements from the New Public Management and the New Public Governance, making public school management very similar to the management of a private company. Thus, the potentialities and the limits of CA are indicated: it is concluded that although CA corresponds to a set of complex and rigorous techniques, its applicability as an epistemological possibility in studies in the field of educational policy is presented in a didactic manner.