The genesis of ProEMI from the cognitive perspective of public policies

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the process that gave rise to the Innovative Higher Education Program (ProEMI) as a way of understanding the actions taken by public and private actors in the construction of a new project for secondary education in Brazil. The analysis seeks to understand the cognitive and normative framework that gave rise to and legitimized this educational policy, considering that policy is the result of a process of interaction and relations of force. ProEMI is a policy that seeks to transform the public action of managers, teachers, and students in the country's high schools. The study examines the period 2003-2016 and was developed in the cognitive theoretical perspective of public policies, a perspective focused on understanding the formulation and implementation of public policies based on the relationship between politics and the construction of social order and not just as a troubleshooting mechanism. We find that ProEMI originates from the public actions of a number of actors that construct and accept a matrix of interpretation, resulting in the emergence and legitimization of the choice of a public policy that calls for a counterhegemonic high school.