EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND THE POLICY CYCLE APPROACH: A RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

The present article aims to contribute to the area of education policy by discussing and analyzing the experience of a master's level orientation that used the Policy Cycle Approach as an analytical framework proposed by the English sociologist Stephen J. Ball and collaborators (BOWE; BALL; GOLD, 1992; BALL; BOWE, 1992; BALL, 1994). The study deals with the contemporary theme highlighted in the educational and political context, in this case the constitution of the EthnicRacial Relations Policy sector in a municipal education department and, thus, the Policy Cycle approach was essential as a theoretical and analytical approach of the research. The studies carried out by Ball and Bowe (1992), Ball (2004), Ball and Mainardes (2011) and Lopes (2004) were fundamental for conducting the research analyzed here. Finally, it is important to reaffirm that the use of the Policy Cycle approach allowed to widen the understanding of the phenomenon under analysis - the implementation of the policy of ethnic-racial relations - not limiting it to a simple verification of the application of a certain theory, but on the contrary, unveiling the paths, sometimes contradictory, of its construction.