Critical policy scholarship in education: An overview

This paper presents an overview of critical policy scholarship (CPS) in education. Historically, policy research has been dominated by what is commonly referred to as the policy science tradition, which is positivist in its philosophical stance and instrumentalist in its purpose—it focuses on producing knowledge relevant for policy decisions. However, with the rise of interpretive social inquiry in the 1970s and against the backdrop of unique political developments in the 1980s, CPS emerged as an alternative policy research perspective. This review discusses the scope and foci of CPS in education under four themes: methodological assumptions, interdisciplinary roots, enduring analytical goals, and emerging empirical contexts. Implications of the prevalence of inequality, Big Data and digital panopticon for educational policymaking and policy research are also briefly discussed. The paper concludes that although its foci of analysis have shifted considerably in the last four decades, analytical interest and tools of CPS remain largely unchanged.

A CONCENTRAÇÃO FUNDIÁRIA COMO UMA DAS FACES DA CONTRARREFORMA AGRÁRIA NO BRASIL: A REPRODUÇÃO DO LATIFÚNDIO E DO MINIFÚNDIO NO CAMPO ALAGOANO

Resumo: Duas indagações resumem as pretensões analíticas desse artigo: sem alteração na estrutura fundiária concentrada é possível defender que houve reforma agrária no Brasil? Como está a realidade e a dinâmica da estrutura fundiária no campo do estado de Alagoas? Para responder essas questões o objetivo central desse trabalho é analisar a estrutura fundiária alagoana, entre 1985 e 2014. A fonte principal de análise são os dados oficiais da estrutura fundiária do Sistema Nacional de Cadastro Rural do Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária. A reflexão tem por centralidade as contradições da questão agrária brasileira, focando a lente nas especificidades da formação territorial capitalista e no desenvolvimento contraditório do capital no campo do país. Assim, pretendemos demonstrar que a perpetuação da estrutura fundiária concentrada é uma das faces da contrarreforma agrária à moda brasileira e, em Alagoas, esse processo tem se manifestado na reprodução do latifúndio e do minifúndio como determinante das relações sociais de poder nesse território.THE LAND CONCENTRATION AS ONE OF THE FACES OF THE AGRARIAN COUNTER REFORMATION IN BRAZIL: THE REPRODUCTION OF LATIFUNDIUM AND SMALLHOLDING IN THE ALAGOANO FIELDAbstract: Two inquiries summarize the analytical goals of this article: The first one is if without change in the concentrated land structure is possible to argue that there was agrarian reform in Brazil? The second one is: how is the reality and the dynamics of the land structure in the state of Alagoas? In order to answer these questions the main objective of this work is to analyze the Alagoana land structure between 1985 and 2014. The main source of analysis is the official data of the land structure of the National System of Rural Register of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The Reflection has as its centrality the contradictions of the Brazilian agrarian issue, paying more attention on the specificities of capitalist territorial formation and the contradictory development of capital in the country's countryside. Thus, we intend to demonstrate that the perpetuation of the concentrated land structure is one of the faces of the Brazilian agrarian counter-reform, and in Alagoas this process has manifested itself in the reproduction of the latifundium and the smallholding as determinant of the social relations of power in that territory.Keywords: Land structure. Smallholding. Latifúndium. Alagoano field.LA CONCENTRACIÓN AGRARIA COMO UNA DE LAS CARAS DE LA CONTRARREFORMA AGRARIA EN BRASIL: LA REPRODUCCIÓN DEL LATIFUNDIO Y DEL MINIFUNDIO EN EL CAMPO DE ALAGOASResumen: Dos preguntas resumen las afirmaciones analíticas de este artículo: sin cambiar la estructura concentrada de la tierra, ¿es posible defender que hubo una reforma agraria en Brasil? ¿Cómo está la realidad y la dinámica de la estructura de la tierra en el campo del estado de Alagoas? Para contestar a estas preguntas, el objetivo principal de este trabajo es analizar la estructura de la tierra en Alagoas, entre 1985 y 2014. La principal fuente de análisis son los datos oficiales de la estructura de la tierra del Sistema Nacional de Registro Rural del Instituto Nacional de Colonización y Reforma Agraria. El foco central de la reflexión son las contradicciones de la cuestión agraria brasileña, enfocando la lente en las especificidades de la formación territorial capitalista y el desarrollo contradictorio del capital en el país. Por lo tanto, tenemos la intención de demostrar que la perpetuación de la estructura de la tierra concentrada es una de las caras de la contrarreforma agraria en la moda brasileña y, en Alagoas, este proceso se ha manifestado en la reproducción del latifundio y del minifundio como determinante de las relaciones sociales de poder en este territorio.Palabras-llave: Estructura agraria; Minifundio; Latifundio; Campo de Alagoas.

Rethinking Decolonial and Postcolonial Knowledges beyond Regions to Imagine Transnational Solidarity

Since the early twentieth century, various strands of “anticolonial” scholarship have been and are concerned with how colonial encounters and practices constitute differences. In recent years, this scholarship maps the uneven implications of “coloniality” for subjects and bodies marked as different, for example, “feminine,” “raced,” “queer,” or trans. Along with feminism, anticolonial scholarship's analytical goals—to link the body with body politics—are closely tied to its political ones: to correct the wrongs of colonial encounters and practices. The current avatars of anticolonial scholarship include postcolonial, decolonial, and settler-colonial variants.

Spatial Planning, Territorial Development, and Territorial Impact Assessment

This article debates the possibilities and advantages of using territorial impact assessment (TIA) policy evaluation methodologies to assess the implementation of spatial planning instruments. It builds on existing literature to define key analytical goals, dimensions, and respective components to monitor and evaluate the implementation of spatial plans, at all territorial levels, to be used as a TIA evaluation matrix. It concludes that, despite the inherent complexity associated with the process of evaluating spatial planning processes, there are manifest advantages to using TIA tools to evaluate them, mostly at the ex post phase.

Biological variation of plasma osmolality obtained with capillary versus venous blood

Plasma osmolality (POsm) is a gold standard to assess hydration status but requires venipuncture. POsm obtained by lancing a digit, a source of capillary puncture blood (CAP), has not been validated. This study compared POsm from CAP versus venous blood (VEN) and validated its sensitivity to detect dehydration.Healthy young adults (Study A: n=20 men, 22 women; Study B: n=23 men, 23 women) participated. In Study A, CAP and VEN were compared under controlled euhydration meeting dietary reference intakes for water (3.7 L men, 2.7 L women). In Study B, CAP was assessed for sensitivity to detect dehydration with receiver operating characteristic analysis over two 24 h periods: euhydration for 24 h followed by water restriction over 24 h. POsm was measured using freezing point depression.For all subjects, CAP POsm (283.0±3.9 mOsm/kg) was not significantly different (p=0.07) from VEN (284.2±3.5) during euhydration and met analytical goals for individuality and heterogeneity. When outliers (n=3) were eliminated, mean difference was –1.6 (±3.2) lower (p<0.01) with CAP. Fluid restriction increased (p<0.001) CAP POsm (284.0±4.4 to 292.8±5.2 mOsm/kg), achieving excellent accuracy (0.92) and sensitivity (89.1%) to predict mild dehydration (2% body mass loss).POsm via CAP exhibited similar coefficients of variation and analytical goals compared to VEN combined with excellent accuracy and sensitivity to detect dehydration. Although CAP values were approximately 2 mOsm/kg lower than VEN, CAP appears an adequate substitute for tracking changes in non-clinical settings.