Domains of action of researchers in Education in Brazil

Abstract

This article outlines areas of action of researchers as tools to interpret for whom the area of Education produces knowledge. It contextualizes the research in Education in Brazil in its peculiar institutional and epistemological conditions. It works with sociological concepts such as scientific field, scientific capitals, and autonomy of the professional field to illuminate aspects of the Brazilian academic context of knowledge production in Education. It associates these concepts with the notions of domain and dialogue with audiences to advance in the interpretation of the contradictions and heteronomies faced by the area. It is grounded on the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with Brazilian researchers recognized for their academic representativeness with productivity grants and a history of leadership in scientific research. It questions how relationships with different social groups support processes of knowledge production and circulation. To account for this questioning, it characterizes the academic-scientific subfield of Education in terms of specific capitals, research audiences, prestige criteria, and political relations. It discusses strategies of dialogue as instrumental categories to interpret phenomena associated with scientific and political legitimacy. As a result, it finds four domains of action in knowledge production in Education: scientific-disciplinary; pedagogical; political-managerial; dialogical socio-educational. It concludes that, when acting in the different domains, these researchers differently order the priorities conferred to scientific rigor and socio-educational intervention.