The repercussions of Michel Foucault's thought in the Brazilian Educational Research (1990-2012)

• Grant number: 12/20174-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2013
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Julio Roberto Groppa Aquino
• Grantee: Julio Roberto Groppa Aquino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

More than two and a half decades after his death, Michel Foucault persists as an exponent of postwar thought, having raised a "popularity" that very few contemporary intellectuals were able to achieve on a global scale. Acclaimed by some, execrated by others and also challenged by a few, Foucault's work has acquired in Brazil a gradual and recurring repercussion across various areas of knowledge, especially Education. The reception/diffusion of Foucauldian ideas in this last field took place, in a more significant manner, since the mid-1990's, through what has been called as post-critical research, an investigative approach that sticks to Foucault's theorization - sometimes exclusively, sometimes in conjunction with other authors - as one of its sustaining pillars. Aiming at setting up a possible horizon concerning the repercussions of Foucault's ideas within the Brazilian educational research, the present investigation considers two extensive and complementary sources: the articles based on Foucault's thought published in 33 journals between 1990 and 2012, as well as a set of 15 interviews with the most assiduous and influential researchers in this field. Beyond a general cartography of bibliographic production under the designation of Foucauldian Studies in Education¸ the purpose of this resarch is, thus, to contemplate analytically the different ways in which the work of Foucault was appropriated in the educational sphere, paying attention to the multiple overflows, the hybridizations and the polyphonies - all them adduced by some kind of phagocytosis, from the instrumental initiatives to the apologetical ones, of Foucault's thought. (AU)