Currently, education specialists have dedicated themselves to debating the existence of national educational policies considering standards and concepts brought about by globalization. This thematic dossier shows that despite the pressures and orientations exerted by neoliberal globalization and International Organizations (IO), there is still room for national educational policies that consider the historical connection of education, the power relations in the academic space, and the specific dynamics of educational actors (teachers, researchers, administrative staff, managers, etc.).

Both nationally and internationally, researchers have been focusing, from different theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, on understanding the phenomenon that we will refer to in this dossier as the internationalization of education. The diversity of approaches, perspectives of analysis, and terminologies adopted reflect the complexity of the theme, as we can observe in the studies developed by ^{Bourdon (2002)}; ^{Laval and Weber (2002)}; ^{Dale (2004)}; Robertson and ^{Dale (2002)}; ^{Beech (2006}, ²⁰⁰⁹, ²⁰¹²⁾; ^{Akkari (2011)}; Lauwerier and ^{Akkari (2011)}; ^{Costa (2015)}; ^{Oliveira (2020)}; ^{Ball (2020)}; ^{Verger (2019)}; ^{Shiroma (2020)}, among others.

^{Lange and Henaff’s (2015)} perspectives provide us with clues for understanding the intertwining of globalization and internationalization as concomitant, yet distinct, phenomena. According to these authors, the internationalization of education encompasses various processes generated both by the rapid development of education worldwide and by the increasing intricacy of education governance systems at different scales, from the international to the local, including the sub-regional and the national. Internationalization, whose materiality relies on the existence of nation-states, consists of crossing borders that globalization tends to erase. On the other hand, globalization would almost inevitably lead to the adoption of categorical positions derived from a polarized view (on one side, a standardized discourse justified by science, largely manufactured in the Global North and "transported" by international organizations, bearing progress and social justice; and on the other, the rejection of this ideologically marked discourse and no less ideological proposals). Therefore, addressing issues related to the evolution of educational systems, the reform of educational policies, and changes in their practices from the perspective of internationalization would, according to the authors, allow us to go beyond bipolarization to highlight the complex processes that are currently underway, considering all the social actors involved.

Broadly speaking, studies on the internationalization of education have highlighted the existence of a structured global agenda in recent decades, with the increasingly evident role of IO as bearers of a hegemonic discourse on education. As subjects of one of the most significant levels through which globalization operates, IO have been analyzed as supranational entities founded on multilateral agreements with States and play a fundamental role in the construction of this structured agenda for education and in defining priorities for different countries (^{Dale; Robertson, 2002}).

The reach of IO and their pursuit of hegemonic legitimation in countries of the Global South, particularly in Latin American countries, can be observed through the progressive presence of their representations and the development of projects and programs aimed at Basic Education. These actions were an important milestone in the Education for All movement of the 1990s, spearheaded by institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and their regional representations. These organizations have acted in different regions in accordance with their institutional specificities and levels of permeability by national States. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 4) reflects the progression of this pursuit to make educational policies even more global. Among the initiatives undertaken by IOs, we highlight the work of the OECD, which, despite its origin with an economic focus, has acted in education as a "global Ministry" that directs and homogenizes educational policies of countries with very different historical backgrounds and educational systems. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)⁴, although not a mandatory assessment, it has become a central instrument of governance for educational systems; an international point of evidence and reference for discussing quality; and one of the main tools for evaluating the efficiency of educational systems and their teachers (^{Feldfeber, 2019}). The PISA and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)⁵, through the collection and systematization of teaching and learning data, are intended to support countries in “advancing their reform agenda”. According to ^{Faria (2018)}, the coalition of IO with a diversity of public and private actors, such as international NGO, transnational social movements, and multinational corporations; its great capacity to articulate for the pursuit of common goals and voluntary action, have been used by these institutions as strategies to legitimize themselves at the national level, circumvent their low authority, lack of resources, and limited autonomy about member states. These strategies, together with different intermediaries, are contributing to guaranteeing their effectiveness, power, and autonomy, without them having to bear the political costs of direct or "hard" regulation.

Looking at the global educational agenda in recent decades reveals an internationalization characterized by a tendency to harmonize and standardize educational systems, disseminate "good practices" and "evidence," and a striking similarity among educational reforms implemented by countries in their curricula, management, assessment, teacher training, and organization of teaching work. These dynamics have contributed to a progressive privatization of educational services.

This situation was exacerbated by the new challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which governments worldwide had to adopt policies and measures to ensure the continuity of educational provision at different levels and modalities. Remote learning and the platformization of education gained momentum during this period, highlighting and exacerbating social and educational inequalities, as well as disparities in access to digital technologies and electronic devices in different regions of the globe, particularly for public education. Concurrently, documents prepared by IO circulated, providing guidance for the resumption of activities by educational systems and, subsequently, diagnoses regarding the loss of human capital, increased inequalities, intensification of the learning crisis, and socioemotional problems. Proposals for learning recovery, development of socioemotional skills, and for making educational systems more efficient, equitable, and resilient have been outlined in various reports published by these institutions in recent years (^{Oliveira; Feldfeber, 2023}).

On the other hand, if we direct our attention to the specificities of the internationalization of Higher Education, we find that it is also not a calm river that flows without traps but rather constitutes a tumultuous and uncertain process (^{De Wit; Altbach, 2021}). It may even experience stoppages or declines, as we saw clearly during the Covid-19 pandemic when the mobility of students and researchers practically ceased for almost two years.

The very concept of internationalization should be questioned, particularly to expand it to the Global South and liberate it from Western hegemony, given that internationalization is above all a true opening of the university to the world (^{Tight, 2022}). Furthermore, many researchers have highlighted a detrimental tendency that leads certain prestigious universities to collaborate among themselves as a club of the chosen and privileged, leaving other universities on the margins of internationalization. This is the idea behind the notion of World Class Universities as a global race for academic excellence (^{Lee et al., 2020}; ^{Alsawaha et al., 2021}).

The imperatives of sustainable development and the common destiny of humanity have brought new impetus to the concept of internationalization to the extent that Higher Education must examine its role and its social responsibility in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 (^{Jones et al., 2021}). An internationalized Higher Education cannot afford to forget its mission of solidarity with the most vulnerable and its role as a public good (^{Allais, 2020}; ^{Cantor, 2020}).

Understanding that the internationalization of education cuts across different levels and types of education, both public and private, and to overcome the fragmentation that exists in the analysis of the topic due to theoretical, methodological, or thematic approaches (^{Lange; Henaff, 2015}), this dossier proposes to integrate scientific articles that address the topic at hand, both at the Basic Education level and at the Higher Education level. This understanding leads to the need for a critical, historicized, and contextualized analysis of the implications of internationalization on the different national educational systems. To this end, the following questions were formulated: to what extent have international educational discourses and practices been appropriated and translated (or not) into policies, programs, and actions by educational systems at the national level? How can more democratic, autonomous, and pertinent educational policies and practices be built, given an increasingly imposing international trend and presence?

The dossier is structured in three integrated sections. The first presents an interview with Prof. Dr. Rossana Valéria de Souza e Silva, who shares with readers her consolidated experience in the management of the internationalization of Higher Education, where she has been involved in actions at the national, regional, and international levels.

The second section of the dossier comprises 14 articles, and the third consists of two experiential reports. Of these 16 studies, eight are by national authors from different regions of Brazil; two are the result of collaboration between Brazilian authors and researchers from Mexico and Portugal, respectively, and one is a collaboration between researchers from Switzerland and Canada. A total of five articles are by international authors originating from Argentina, Belgium, and Mexico. Of the articles that comprise this dossier, 10 were written in Portuguese, of which three have an English version. Three articles were written in French, of which two have translations into Portuguese and one into English. Among the three articles originally written in Spanish, one also has an English version.

The dossier systematizes the contributions of teachers and researchers from Basic and Higher Education, specialists and technical staff directly involved in the internationalization of Higher Education, and postgraduate students. The variety of countries of origin and regions of the authors, languages, and institutions of activity reflects the extent to which the topic in question challenges the different stakeholders involved, its consequences at the level of discourses, but also of practices, projects, and programs adopted to address it.

The diversity of themes contained in the articles reveals the complexity of the topic and allows us to understand the theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches adopted. In this dossier, you will find studies addressing the internationalization of education from the perspective of its influence on reforms in educational systems in different countries, on distinct levels and modalities of education, and also articles that explore dimensions of teaching such as management, curriculum, evaluation, teacher training, educational policies, and the management of systems.

An important set of articles problematized the emergence of a variety of international, supranational, and private actors in the educational field, engendered by the gradual decline of the State's monopoly over the educational field, with emphasis on the presence of IOs. These institutions, in performing their ideological role, influence the definition of political guidelines for States and contribute to the legitimization of certain institutions and practices at the national level, reflecting orientations favorable to the dominant social and economic forces. This group of studies demonstrates, therefore, that the influence of IOs can materialize, to a great extent, through the co-optation of elites from peripheral countries and the absorption of counter-hegemonic ideas (^{Cox, 2007}), through partnerships with a variety of local actors. The following articles question the level of permeability of the guidelines/orientations propagated by these institutions in educational systems, in training (recognition and validation of qualifications), and in curriculum, on an international, regional, and national scale.

Maria Abádia da Silva and Alexandre Marinho Pimenta’s article, “The World Bank and OECD as prophets of the internationalization of basic education”, regarding the influences of the World Bank and OECD on high school reform, highlights alignments and convergences between these institutions and policies for public Basic Education in Brazil. They argue that the actions of private companies, foundations, and institutes conceal forms of privatization that dilute social rights and favor the imperatives of capitalist accumulation.

In the same vein, the investigation shared by Bruno Nicolau Cerine da Cruz, Jorge Henrique de Lima Monteiro, and Telma Adriana Pacifico Martineli, “The major project of education and the internationalization of the Latin American curricular reform: reverberations in the BNCC”, analyzed the guidelines issued by UNESCO that oriented the Major Project of Education and the curricular reform in Latin America, particularly the BNCC in Brazil. They begin by questioning how these assumptions and principles have branched out and been incorporated into the Basic Education curricula of Latin American countries and how they are materialized in these documents.

Directing their analysis to the international movement aimed at educational inclusion, led by UN agencies such as UNESCO, the article by Joaquim Sieber, Stéphanie Bauer, and Corina Borri-Anadon, “From international discourses of inclusion to their local translation: teachers’ conceptions about an integration-inclusion reform in the canton of Bern (Switzerland)”, investigates the influences of these guidelines on educational reforms undertaken in Switzerland to make its system more inclusive, and what the impacts are on teachers. To this end, they present the results of interviews conducted with teachers from the Canton of Bern, to understand their conceptions surrounding the reform for the integration-inclusion process underway.

Com foco no Ensino Superior, o artigo intitulado “El Reconocimiento de las cualificaciones relativas a la Educación Superior en América Latina y el Caribe a partir de la vigencia del Nuevo Convenio Regional”, de Paulo Andrés Falcón, direciona sua análise sobre o movimento de reconhecimento das qualificações relativas ao Ensino Superior desencadeado pela UNESCO a partir da revisão de convenções regionais aprovadas para o período 2014-2021. Com ênfase na nova Convenção Regional sobre Reconhecimento de Estudos, Títulos e Diplomas de Ensino Superior na América Latina e no Caribe, aprofunda seu olhar sobre a adoção das orientações pela Cidade Autônoma de Buenos Aires, a partir de 2022.

Also focusing on the actions of IO on educational systems, three articles analyzed how the evaluation models and conceptions disseminated by these institutions, especially the OECD, influence and modify educational systems at regional and national levels. Based on the survey and systematization of elements that emerge from the translation/assimilation of international guidelines, the authors sought to demonstrate how their operationalization occurs in national contexts.

The article by Fabiano Antonio dos Santos, Isaura Monica Souza Zanardini, João Batista Zanardini, and Hellen Jaqueline Marques, entitled “The internationalization of education and the construction of world-class evaluation systems for Latin America”, questions the adoption of world-class evaluation systems by Latin American countries, based on documents on evaluation in Latin America produced by UNESCO, the World Bank, and the OECD, from 1990 to 2019.

Lucrecia Rodrigo and Axel Kesler, in their article “Socio-emotional skills in education assessment programs: international discourses and local experiences”, drawing from the Argentine educational assessment experience, provide insight into the emotional education approach present in the assessment proposals of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), driven by international organizations. According to the authors, this perspective is grounded in frameworks of positive psychology, theories of emotional intelligence, and competence models that promote discourses of individualization of the social within the school setting.

Focusing on the Pernambuco experience, Divane Oliveira de Moura Silva and Kátia Silva Cunha’s article, “Discursive transformations in educational assessment: a study of political logics in Pernambuco’s goals”, problematizes the adoption of the Public Management Modernization Program – Goals for Education by the state’s educational assessment policy. Referenced in the Discourse Theory of Laclau and Mouffe (2015), they analyze and discuss neoliberalism, managerialism, and globalism as discursive forces of “modernization” that influence educational assessment policies. These discourses of modernization are portrayed as representative of successful cooperation and articulation between international organizations and public-private partnerships.

Collaboration networks as a strategy for increasing the internationalization of Higher Education are the subject of two articles. With the title “The internationalization of higher education in Brazil: the CAPES-PrInt program and international academic cooperation”, the article authored by Marília Costa Morosini, Jocelia Martins Marcelino, Manuir José Mentges, and Vanessa Gabrielle Woicolesco presents us with a detailed analysis of how academic cooperation strategies and collaborative networks established by universities participating in the CAPES PrInt program can contribute to the consolidation of the Internationalization of Higher Education in the country. They emphasize the relevance of collaborative network work among universities as a mechanism for facing the challenges imposed by internationalization processes that largely disregard the particularities of the region. They also provide important contributions to the analysis of changes in the ways of operating internationalization, based on technology and innovation, intensified by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

In the article “Cooperation as a strategy for the internationalization of education”, Roberto Escalante-Semerena and Patricia Avila-Muñoz rely on the premise of using collaboration and innovation networks to expand their reach through the employment of educational models based on information and communication technologies. These elements would contribute to the creation of a context conducive to the internationalization of Higher Education and the development of exchange and research activities. They point out that the pandemic allowed for the testing of different educational models, with hybrid models being the most accepted, as well as for experimenting with and evaluating the potential of technology use. International collaboration would provide benefits that translate into a diversified educational offering adapted to institutional needs, in addition to strengthening relationships between actors and generating opportunities for closer ties between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from different countries and cultural contexts.

The collection of articles that follow, based on accounts of concrete training experiences, highlight the extent to which hegemonic discourses are translated and “sediment” proposals and actions in specific educational systems. They demonstrate that, despite the existence of global guidelines that constrain systems, the way each reform is translated has particular characteristics independent of the universality of the proposed discourses, which explains the different outcomes of a reform (^{Lange; Henaff, 2015}). The authors question which training models are most suitable and relevant for quality education and professional trajectories in their respective contexts. They reveal the contradiction between training to meet hegemonic and market-driven discourse and training relevant to historically situated trajectories and contexts.

The experience report entitled “Les politiques éducatives et les adultes en reprise d’études en Belgique Francophone: quels modèles? Quelles motivations? Quels freins et quels atouts?”⁶ by Raehda Kabir and Joiciane Aparecida de Souza, analyzes the return of adult students to French-speaking Belgian Higher Education. The authors identify and present the educational policies implemented by the Belgian government and at the institutional level to promote the return of these adults to Higher Education Institutions. Through interviews and questionnaires applied to more than 60 participants, they present the factors that influence their return, as well as the effects of this return on their social and professional trajectories. Finally, the study presents the proposal of a specific training model, adapted to the needs and expectations of adults returning to education, based on four main characteristics: flexibility, quality, support, and valorization.

Anas Zaytouni's experience report, entitled “Pédagogies actives et internationalisation”⁷, also situated in the French-speaking Belgian context, provides a historical and political reflection on the internationalization and implementation of active methodologies. This phenomenon triggered an increase in the private supply of schools with this approach in different countries, favoring the adaptation of institutions to the expectations of the market economy. To counter this phenomenon and democratize schools in active methodologies, the author reports the union of forces between the Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer and the Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB to create a continuing education course for practicing teachers: the university certificate in active methodologies, responding to a need for ethical, supportive, and humanistic institutional positioning. The article by Leonardo Bezerra do Carmo and Kátia Augusta Curado P. C. da Silva, entitled "Continuing Education Perspectives in the Professional Development Program for Basic Education Teachers in Canada/2019 - Between the Real and the Official," seeks to understand the continuing education perspectives present in the official documents of the Professional Development Program for Public Basic Education Teachers, promoted in Canada through a partnership between CAPES and CICan (Colleges and Institutes Canada). From the analysis of the program's guiding documents and the application of a questionnaire to participating teachers, the authors present the contradictions present in the training proposal, which provided challenges and opportunities that went beyond the pedagogical-academic aspect, providing contributions from a cultural point of view, contact with new languages, ethnicities, but which, on the other hand, raised questions about the theoretical perspectives adopted by the program and the reality of the teachers, their motivations and expectations.

The following articles, focusing on the internationalization of Higher Education, address visible changes in this area, triggered by globalization movements and the introduction of information technologies, intensified by the Covid-19 Pandemic. They highlight paradigm shifts, alignments, and proposals to counter and resist changes brought about by internationalization processes of an economic nature, which may induce or even deepen the segmentation of systems.

Luísa Cerdeira, Alda Maria Duarte Araújo Castro and Sirlei de Lourdes Lauxen, in the article “Internationalization policy of higher education as a strategy of the global agenda: current trends”, analyze and point out changes in the way internationalization is operated, through the implementation of specific global guidelines and the incorporation of information and communication technologies. Supported by a documentary analysis and historical series, they highlight the transformations experienced by academic mobility and the barriers still present in the countries of the periphery of capitalism. They also discuss the growth of the mercantilist bias prioritized by IO in the debate on the internationalization of Higher Education, which would favor countries with universities at the top of international rankings.

In the article "The History of Brazilian State Policies for its Scientific and Technological Diaspora," Alex Guedes Brum delves into the history of Brazilian state policies concerning its scientific and technological diaspora. He presents the paradigm shifts in recent decades regarding skilled emigration and recounts the historical process that led the Brazilian state to formulate policies aimed at establishing its scientific and technological diaspora. The author details a set of policies and programs implemented as responses from countries to their qualified emigrants, which encouraged or regulated these flows. Finally, he demonstrates the alignment between Brazilian policies affecting Higher Education and the emerging global trend of creating linkage policies for their scientific and technological diasporas.

The article by José Vieira de Sousa and Edson Machado de Sousa Filho, “Internationalization of higher education in Brazil: Presence of Foreign Students Enrolled in Undergraduate Courses in 2022”, investigates the external institutional evaluation in its relation to the internationalization of Brazilian Higher Education. Using data from the 2022 Census, it systematizes information regarding the presence of undergraduate students in Brazilian Higher Education (number of enrollments, country of origin, among others). Based on data also collected in the Student Questionnaire of Enade 2021, they discuss the extent to which the internationalization actions of Brazilian HEI are measured in instruments of the evaluation policy of the National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education (Sinaes). To conclude, they seek to identify and debate the inclusion of internationalization as an indicator of Sinaes’ evaluation policy.

Finally, with the aim of mapping academic productions that have explored the topic at hand, the article “the production of knowledge on the internationalization of higher education in Latin America (2012-2022)” by Egeslaine de Nez, Franciane Maria Araldi, Diana Erika Cruz Jiménez, and Juliana F. Serraglio Pasini, used Brazilian dissertations and theses as a reference, as well as articles from Latin American journals produced between the years 2012 and 2022. The results demonstrate that the topic has gained strength and aroused interest in the last decade among authors and educational authorities. The mapping carried out offers us a clear view of the themes addressed, the years with the highest incidence of studies, the countries of publication of the journals and the frequency of articles, the authors most cited in the theoretical framework of the articles analyzed, among other elements.

With the discussions presented throughout this thematic dossier, we hope to contribute to the dissemination and expansion of the topic at hand, which has challenged education so much in different countries and regions. The systematization of this work was only possible thanks to the generous collaboration of the authors who composed the dossier and the valuable partnership of the Ad Hoc reviewers and reviewers, to whom we address our most sincere recognition, respect, and gratitude. We extend a special thank you to the invitation made by the editorial board of Revista Educação e Políticas em Debate and to the support provided by you and your team throughout the organization of this edition.

In the hope that the texts that make up this dossier will lead to fruitful debates, questions, and reflections, we wish everyone an excellent read!