Methodological considerations

During the examination of the selected journals as sources for this project, methodological procedures derived from a chain of comparative studies in education were utilized ( ^{SCHRIEWER, 1998} ; ^{SCHRIEWER; KEINER, 1992} ; ^{CARVALHO; CORDEIRO, 2002} ). Hence, particular attention is paid to the external references present in the articles studied, as well as collecting the information present in the bibliographical references, registering books, journal articles, theses and dissertations, as well as the other mentioned sources.

The process of collecting and processing this information is guided by a research protocol that allows the construction of a large database and provides for the registration of information related to the type of article, the school grade mentioned in the text, main theme, character of the text and geopolitical unit of analysis, to verify the presence or absence of comparison purposes. At the same time, the available information regarding the authors of the articles, the institution to which they are linked, the academic title with which they are presented, are collected. Such information will be supplemented later through the other group of sources to be examined, the curricula of the researchers available at CNPq Lattes Platform.

The aim is to verify how some properties of the field of education which are incorporated in the agents of the field work and the ways in which they mobilize them and ponder them with different values according to the Field Theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu in several of his works, particularly in Homo academicus (2011). Some of the possible properties are shown here schematically:

• Means of Publication (journals and their importance in academic production)

- Author´s participation in the publishing board or team

• Initial formation of articles´ authors

- Type of institution: public or private

- Degree in pedagogy or in other areas

• Postgraduate studies

- Program and university

- Research advisor(s)

• Career and institutional position

- Partnership with the university or research institution

Supervision activities and student list

- Positions occupied in the university and in the other university and academic management

- Participation in research groups as CNPq scholarship student

- Other grants

- Post-doctorate and other stages

- International circulation index

• Article references

- Authors

- Books

- Periodical articles

- Other sources

This set of properties allows a better understanding of the trajectories described by the agents, the positions occupied, the established bonds and alliances, the affiliation and affinity networks, the theoretical alignments, and so on. Unlike other types of studies that have been used as sources for the academic production in specialized journals, the research, still under development, intends to compose an analytical framework for the circulation of references in the Brazilian educational field, as well as the constitution of affinity networks in the same field, through the participation of the national researchers in the most important journals of the area and of the relations established in the scope of the postgraduate and in the collective projects of research that have been developed in the last years. Examining the production and functioning of these networks of affinities may provide a much more detailed picture of the relationships established among agents in the field of university education as to educational research, providing a better understanding of the effective mechanisms of intellectual affiliation, knowledge and conversion and reconversion of the specific capitals of that field.

History and presentation of Educar em Revista

Educar em Revista is a journal edited by the Department of Education of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and has been published every quarter since 2009. At other times of its trajectory, however, this periodicity varied. An outline of the life cycle of the journal was published in issue 50 (^{MACHADO JR.; BENCOSTTA, 2013}). In this text, it goes back to its origin to the old Revista de Educação , which two issues in 1977 and 1978. In 1981, the magazine was reissued, but with another title, Educar - Journal of the Department of Education of the Federal University of Paraná , that circulated with annual periodicity until 1989. It was republished in 1993, with the current title. It remained with only one annual edition until issue number 16, in the year 2000. Until 2008, it was issued every six months, assuming, in 2009, the quarterly periodicity that has been maintained to date.

Throughout the period examined here (2000-2010), 23 regular and four more special issues were published, which totaled 383 articles. These texts are distributed between thematic dossiers defined by the Advisory Board and various articles selected by the Editorial Committee (^{MACHADO JR.; BENCOSTTA, 2013}). These 383 articles were written by 544 authors. ⁵ A dispersion of authors was noted, of which only 29 published 2 or even 3 articles. 15 of them had institutional partnership with UFPR, whose Department of Education publishes the journal. 88% of the articles were produced by Brazilian authors, and the others by foreign authors, mostly from Portugal (12), Spain (7), Argentina (6) and Chile (5).

As for the authors´ institutional affiliation, the significant presence of researchers of the UFPR (22.5%) is noted, followed by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) with 5.8% and of the three public universities in São Paulo (USP, Unicamp and Unesp), nearly 4% each, totaling 13% of the number of authors. This distribution is explained in part by the history and origin of the publication, which was launched with the purpose of disseminating the internal production of the university’s faculty members, which implies the strong endogenous nature of its content during part of the period studied. However, over the years, the journal has sought to adapt to the current criteria in the area of scientific publications and to achieve better positions in Qualis ranking, elaborated by Capes, in order to reach the A1 strata, the highest of that classification system. Therefore, one of the requirements is the diversity and plurality of institutional origin of the authors of published articles. In the research presented here, it was possible to verify that the proportion of UFPR authors who published articles published in Educar em Revista decreased from 31.5% in the period between 2000 and 2005 to 17% in the period between 2006 and 2010.

Throughout the entire period, however, it is possible to verify the aforementioned presence of the UFPR researchers in the journal (almost one fourth of the authors of the articles), in addition to a large participation of authors from other institutions in Paraná. Three states alone – Paraná (30.8%), São Paulo (18.5%) and Rio Grande do Sul (10.1%) – add up to almost 60% of the authors of the articles published in the journal. This regional distribution coincides to some extent with the location of the main Doctorate programs in Education in the country, which also includes the states of Rio de Janeiro (6.1%) and Minas Gerais (5.2%), which are still very unevenly distributed in the national territory, although this is diffused by the creation of new programs in all major public universities.

Among the main authors of the UFPR, it may be observed that the majority (almost 78%) carried out their postgraduate studies in only four universities: UFPR (28%), USP, PUC-SP and Unicamp (these three correspond to 50%). Authors who are not affiliated to the UFPR and have completed postgraduate programs in these institutions correspond to only 36% of the total.

The database produced for the search provides the amount of up to three authors per article. 263 articles were written by only one author; 78 written in collaboration between two authors; and 42 by three authors. In this journal, the presence of individual work is a characteristic of Brazilian educational production and of area of humanities in general, as ^{Ortiz (2004)} points out. It is important to notice that 15 out of 29 authors who published more than one article in the period (2 or 3 at most), were affiliated to the UFPR. Up to three co-authors have been registered in the database and this totals the 544 mentioned here. Regarding the rest of the information about authors, only the 383 main authors (the first name cited in the article) were used.

As for nationality, 336 articles were produced by Brazilian authors (almost 88%), and among the foreign authors are Portuguese (12 articles), Spanish (7), Argentinean (6) and Chilean (5). In terms of regional distribution, 53% of authors are affiliated to research institutions in the Southern Area, 34.5% in the Southeast, and 11.5% equally distributed between the Northeastern and Central-West Areas. No authors from the Northern Area were appointed. Such depiction might explain the concentration and unequal distribution of material, institutional and human resources dedicated to educational research among the different regions in the country, as well as the strong regional economic inequalities.

The investigation focused on the references present in the articles, classified in periodicals, books, theses and dissertations, electronic and other documents which did not fit into other modalities and that include legislation and texts published in annals of scientific events among others.

Considering that most of the articles’ references were taken from books and journal articles, the analysis will focus on these two modalities, although other relevant considerations could also be made regarding the use of theses and dissertations and the relative presence of institutions in which they were produced. It can be seen in Table 1 that the main type of source mobilized are the books (more than 63% of the total). Although journal articles are increasingly valued as the main vehicle for the circulation of scientific knowledge and as the main source for researchers, it seems to continue to prevail in the social sciences in general and in educational studies, in particular, the use of books as privileged means of expression and access to the knowledge produced. Renato Ortiz, addressing the differences between the social sciences and the natural sciences, comments on this distinction:

The contrast between social and natural sciences can be even better worked on. Several studies show that in the latter the journals are considered “primary” documents, the vehicle of “first-hand information”. The magazine is the means par excellence of the science in progress; is located on the border, in the gap between what is known and what is to be known. Researchers and laboratory teams privilege it in contrast to the book, considered an informative manual, secondary support in the development of new theories and discoveries. [...] In contrast, for the social sciences the book is the privileged support; even the articles are long, unlike the short (sometimes very short) texts of the natural sciences. It is not merely a question of prestige (it exists in “human” and “exact”), but here the idea of information has another relevance. It is an integral part of a theoretical and explanatory set, and often this interpretive framework is more important than the data conveyed (which is not to say that the information is irrelevant). The social sciences are more interpretive than informative, requiring time for maturation and analysis. ( ^{ORTIZ, 2004} , p. 16-17).

The Articles in Journals

When examining the references to articles in the 383 articles of Educar em Revista , it can be seen that the great majority is in Brazilian publications. Regarding the nationality of the authors of these articles, they are also mostly Brazilian, as can be seen below.

As 88% of the articles of Educar em Revista have been written by Brazilian authors, it can be said that, at least for this sample, scholars who carry out educational studies in the country tend to prefer Brazilian periodicals as well as their authors. This seems to reveal a characteristic of our field of education, which produces research aimed at examining the national reality based on a national bibliography. This was evident when a research showed that 204 of the 383 articles studied (53%) focused on specific situations in Brazilian education, whereas 139 (36%) discussed general education issues which were not specifically located in one country. Only the remaining 40 articles (almost 11%) focused on educational situations in other countries, either singly or in comparison to Brazil. It is quite open to the foreigners, however, as to what citations are related. The United States, followed by France and the United Kingdom, appear as important reference models. In general, journals cited as sources of the texts investigated are the most prestigious or best evaluated Brazilian publications, as well as some foreign journals. Table 4 lists those which received at least 10 mentions.

The books

In the collected articles, 4286 references to books were made. Among them, books by Brazilian authors predominate, followed by French and American, as shown below.

The distribution of the authors´ nationality is very similar when compared to references to journal articles with authors from the countries cited before. Authors from the following countries were mentioned: Brazil (more than half of the references), the United States (about 16%), France (5.4%), the United Kingdom and Spain (both around 3.5%), in that order. In the case of books, there are some changes: Brazil has less than 45% of references, France has almost 13%, the United States has 8.8% and the United Kingdom and Spain show almost 5% each. It is still hasty to indicate the reasons for this variation, since it would be necessary to situate the context and the ways in which these mentions are made in order to understand what this can mean in terms of the structure and organization of the Brazilian educational field during the studied period.

Apparently Brazilian scholars seek their intellectual references in a group of authors from a seemingly small group of countries. In the two most cited groups of materials, books and journal articles, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Spain account for around 30% of references. If this is added to the citations of Brazilian authors, the total reaches between 75 and 80% of the references mobilized in the articles.

Going back to books, although more than half of those which were cited have been written by foreign authors, they are books that are read preferably in translations and in Brazilian editions, as can be seen below:

Therefore, it is noted that Brazilian intellectuals in the field of education tend to read Brazilian authors and when they read foreigner authors they do so in translations to Portuguese. The frequency of foreign languages does not seem to be a dominant feature in this group of researchers who publish their articles in Educar em Revista . These findings still need to be placed in a larger picture in order to be fully understood. A more focused analysis will be necessary in order to understand the ways in which these international references are mobilized: when and in which context do mentions appear about certain authors and in what language? Does this to some extent depend on the subject matter? On the other hand, is it possible to affirm that the field of educational research in Brazil has some kind of closure as to research issues exclusively or predominantly related to the national context? Is it safe to say, then, that internationalization efforts have been induced and encouraged by the instances of evaluation and funding of academic research in recent years and have been favoring the increase of the circulation of Brazilian researchers in the international academic environment?

The 4286 book references are distributed among 2602 different authors, of which 2061 are referred to only once and 290 only twice. There is, therefore, a very large dispersion, with only a few authors being cited more often. Those whose books computed more than 10 references appear in the Table below.

It is a restricted set of 26 authors, of which only seven relate to the Brazilian educational field. ⁶ Among the Brazilians, there are at least two who are major influences and references in the Brazilian context: Paulo Freire (of international prominence) and Dermeval Saviani.

As for the foreigners, the presence of classic authors of the social sciences or the humanities is noted, such as Foucault, Morin, Bourdieu, Adorno, Marcuse, Marx, Freud, Bachelard and Gramsci. In terms of authors related to educational studies, classics such as Piaget and Vygostky are also mentioned, as well as some others that have been very present in contemporary debates such as Nóvoa, Perrenoud, Giroux and Bruner.

As for the most cited books, there is also a relative dispersion. Below are those who obtained at least five mentions.

In the eventual continuation of the research, we render it possible to examine the context in which these mentions appear and what uses are made of these books. What kind of mention is made? Is the book used as a theoretical reference, as a methodological inspiration, or are only topical references made, in order to, to some extent, raise the prestige of the author of the article by citing authors who can add symbolic capital?

Another aspect that has been aroused, but which has not yet been able to configure the consequences for the understanding of the current state of the Brazilian educational field, is related to the editors who published the books mentioned by the authors of the articles in Educar em Revista examined here. There is a group of editors that have been busy publishing most of the works related to the educational theme in Brazil. Another type of survey might be interesting to figure out which authors are publishers´ favorites. Are there preferences related to the university institution of origin or research groups? Conclusions about it are yet to be drawn, but to mark this as an issue to be investigated in the near future is in order. As an example, here the numbers obtained so far, with the distribution by publisher whose books have reached at least 20 citations.

The presence of only three foreign publishers is significant. In Brazil, the largest concentration of publishers occurs in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which is certainly related to the structure of the Brazilian publishing market, but also coincides, to some extent, with the uneven distribution of symbolic capital and resource materials in the country’s universities. To what extent does one dimension relate to and reinforce each other? It is also important to note the presence on this list of university publishers linked to the three public universities of São Paulo.

Final Considerations

Educar em Revista presents itself in the Brazilian educational field as a publication by the Department of Education of the UFPR and has been partially a means for the circulation of research carried out in that university, as proposed initially. However, in the period between 2000 and 2010, which covers 27 issues of the Journal, there is a reduction in its endogenous character (22.5% of the total of the main authors are at the UFPR, and in the first five years of the period this came to 31%). At the same time there is a progressive opening to authors from other national institutions (65.2% of authors). However, this is also positive for authors of other institutions in the State of Paraná, which add up to 30.8% of the authors. More than just an important means of UFPR’s scientific production, the periodic houses part of the production of the other institutions of Paraná - other federal institutions, state universities, PUC-PR, several private higher education institutions and even high schools. Following the authors of Paraná, there are those affiliated to institutions in the States of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, particularly public, federal or state universities, in addition to PUC-SP and PUC-RS.

Foreign authors accounted for only 5.4% between 2000 and 2005 and totaled 15.8% in the period between 2006 and 2010 (as an average of the whole period, they represent 12.3% of the total), which seems to corroborate the efforts and initiatives developed in recent years towards the internationalization of the Brazilian scientific field. This change in the institutional profile of the authors selected to be published in the journal is certainly related to the changes that have been taking place in the evaluation criteria of Capes and that have induced changes in the areas of research, publication of results and circulation of scholars in the field ( ^{OLIVEIRA; CATANI, 2011} ).

Important issues still to be considered are the relevance of this journal and its position in the Brazilian educational field. When Capes elaborated the ranking system of national scientific publications, they brought out the question that Qualis is an instrument intended only to subsidize the evaluation of the various Postgraduate Programs of the country that are conducted periodically, and the effect of this type of classification in the country is indisputable as to the orientation of the periodicals, by establishing standards that eventually become the norm (CAPES, 2016).

Having achieved the highest concept in this classification for the area of Education (A1), the journal Educar em Revista has become part of a select group of publications with power to induce thematic demands for research, establish possibilities for defining the trajectory of the researchers, produce positions of prestige in the field by opening positions in their editorial body and boards, etc. The ways in which these agents behave and act in their specific scopes provide important outcomes for all the other agents in the field, as noted by Castiel and Sanz-Valero:

Our point of view emphasizes that in the scope of scientific publication the commercialization of scientific research is manifested by the progressive commodification of the object “scientific article”. As discussed earlier, there is an important dimension in this regard in the face of transactions to enter the “market” of strong scientific communities. In this case, what are the negotiations between authors, editors and reviewers, besides obeying the “technical-scientific aspects” in the judgment of an article, that is, extra-scientific elements and their limits in the actions and concessions of what researchers can do to publish their articles and to accept others? To place as bibliographical reference of works published in the same periodical in which one tries to publish? Not to consult the bibliographic sources when copying them from the references of other authors? ( ^{CASTIEL; SANZ-VALERO, 2007} , p. 3048).

So, what does it mean for the various authors who submit their articles to this journal, to be able to publish it? What, on the other hand, does it mean for the journal Educar em Revista to decide to publish a certain author and reject many others, beyond the usual technical-scientific criteria? As more and more control measures are established to prevent a given author from sending the same work to several journals, the decision to submit an article for a periodical review implies the exclusion of other possibilities and the entry into a process of which may be fairly time consuming.

To what extent do the internal characteristics, content and actions of the editorial staff of a publication such as Educar em Revista interfere on the quality and content of the submitted articles? And as a result, how does a periodical of this level, after achieving such status, induce thematic demands, theoretical orientations or methodological options that ultimately guide the scientific production in the area of education? How can anyone who wants to publish in this journal ignore the type of production that is published or the set of theoretical references that are most frequent in the articles?

The continuity of this research will try to answer these and other questions that may offer a clearer picture of the complex set of actions and relationships that permeate the various agents of the Brazilian educational field. To do so, the study of journal articles will have to be added to the work with the curricular information of the authors who produce them, as well as the editors and other agents who decide on their publication. Some of these issues are:

Who are the agents mobilized in disputes about scientific legitimacy and practical decisions regarding educational issues? What is the training of these agents who publish in the most prestigious journals? What are their relationships? How are their alignments explicitly expressed through theoretical preferences and choice of authors and reference models, which result from a set of personal relationships, strategic decisions, and affinities? What are these lines of force that define the current situation of the Brazilian educational field, based on the networks of affinities and preferences and on the training and postgraduate courses? What are the theoretical references that have circulated in the production of education studies in Brazil in the last decade?

Some light has been shed and answers to these questions have been outlined for future reference and further clarification.