The spectre of educational policy spreads throughout Europe. Its presence as a discipline in postgraduate education

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify and analyse the ways educational policy is understood, taught and practiced as a training discipline at postgraduate level in the European context. We have validated its epistemological solvency through a quantitative, comparative and ethnographic study of its main features as a discipline –such as ideological and valorative component, praxis-oriented discourse or sustainable and plural normative proposals- found in a stratified sample of 20 countries, 112 universities and 170 training programmes. We also discuss the innovative and formative potential of educational policy to resolve the most contested pedagogical issues and design the educational system, specifying when, how and in which conditions it is constructed as an academic discipline. Among the findings stand out the accreditation and the assessment of the specific role of the values, actors, institutions, supranational decisions and public and curricular policies that shape up educational programmes at a European level, hence contributing to the disciplinary progress of educational policy as a pedagogical, normative, axiological and plural knowledge.

El objetivo de este artículo es identificar y analizar las formas de entender, enseñar y practicar la política educativa como disciplina formativa a nivel de postgrado en el contexto europeo. A través de un estudio cuantitativo, comparado y etnográfico de los principales rasgos disciplinares –componente ideológico y valorativo, discurso ordenado a la praxis, propuestas normativas sostenibles y plurales– presentes en una muestra estratificada de 20 países, 112 universidades y 170 programas formativos se valida la solvencia epistemológica y se discute el potencial innovador y formativo de la política educativa para resolver las cuestiones pedagógicas más disputadas y diseñar el sistema educativo, precisando cuándo, cómo y en qué condiciones se construye como disciplina académica. Entre las conclusiones destaca la acreditación y el cálculo del peso específico de los valores, actores, instituciones, decisiones supranacionales, políticas públicas y curriculares que caracterizan la oferta formativa a nivel europeo, contribuyendo de esta manera al progreso disciplinar de la política educativa como saber pedagógico, normativo, axiológico y plural.