Sociology of Education and Construction of Educational Policies: From the Theory to the Practice

The growing complexity in public policy development has resulted in a significant increase in the involvement of experts, many of them scientists. This involvement is expressed in a variety of ways, whether through requests for preliminary studies, planning processes or evaluations of the implementation and impact of policy measures. The development of the relationship between the scientific and political fields challenges the role of scientists as experts and the use of scientific knowledge, as well as the power relations between politicians and scientists. The sociology of education in Portugal has a long tradition of interaction with the political field, not only in studies related to the development and evaluation of educational policies, but also in collaboration with schools and other education providers in processes of intervention and socio-educational innovation. It is an experience in which the critical and reflexive nature of sociology intersects with intervention, in a debate between diverse rationalities and logics of action, often placing sociologists in the position of mediators among actors in the educational system with often-conflicting interests who miscommunicate, or do not even communicate with each other. Based on the production of a set of studies ordered by different Portuguese public entities, a reflection is presented on the theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges posed by this collaboration, as well as on the possibilities that result from it.