The discourse theory as a theoretical and methodological approach in the field of public policies in education

The evaluation, as an institutional practice, has been tensioning the high education field through the dispute of those who operate the discourses, seeking dominance over the Field itself. The evaluation is a discourse that, in the relation between conflicts and tensions, disputes and domination, uncovers meanings, beliefs and values of subjects and institutions. Comprehending evaluation as a discourse gives us the necessity of a trajectory of analysis-which sets us be yond words-and that considers the contexts, subjects and meanings which are built in social practices. Thereby, the Discourse Theory affords the theoretical and methodological categories which give support in the analysis of existing significations in discourses produced about - and inside-the evaluation itself. That is because, in the Discourse Theory, language is taken not as the centre of the analysis, but as one of the dimensions in social practices, which implies the inclusion of subjects and their relation with a social context that is constituted and transformed.