Comparative Education in Brazil: A preliminary analysis of the academic production

Abstract

This study has as its main objective to do a survey of the academic production on Comparative Education in Brazil using the Capes Data Bank as a source and Maria Manzon’s work as a theoretical basis. In the author’s view, Comparative Education is defi ned by the use of the comparative method on the object of educational systems in a cross-national and cross-cultural dimension. From the methodological point of view, a search of doctoral dissertations was done fi rst using the keyword education and then on the basis of the titles. If a comparative or international dimension was found, the abstract was read and the data about the dissertation was selected. Seventy dissertations with a comparative topic were identifi ed. Studies about Brazil and Portugal, Africa and Latin America were the main focus. They confi rmed the hypothesis that the poor knowledge of foreign languages has prompted the emergence of studies on Brazil and Portugal and Brazil and Spain. The works about Africa result from the tendency that a growing number of African students of Portuguese speaking countries do their graduate programs in Brazil.

Key words: Comparative Education, doctoral dissertations of 2008-2011 (CAPES), Brazil- Portugal studies, Africa-Latin America studies.