The Discourse About the Quality of Higher Education in the Brazilian Media

• In Event: Educational Research in Global Contexts

Abstract

The main goal for this project was to understand the conceptual and ideological frames used in contemporary discourses about Brazilian universities. We analyzed 250 articles published between 1985-2012 by Veja and Isto É the two most read and influential Brazilian weeklies, We used Critical Discourse Analysis and frame analysis as our analytical methods. Our findings are: a) these weeklies use similar prototypes to understand universities: Academic Nostalgia, Educational Entrepreneurism and Redemptive Consumerism; b) these prototypes involve distinctive notions of autonomy and quality of universities; c) these prototypes provide a powerful frame, that is visible in public discourse and in on-going policy discussion about the current state and future of universities in Brazil.

Authors

• Gustavo E. Fischman, Arizona State University

• Sandra Regina Sales, Universidade Federal Rural