Paths of research, academic endogeny, and the Revista da Faculdade de Educação, 1994-1996: an interview with Selma Garrido Pimenta

Abstract

This dialogue with Selma Garrido Pimenta is part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Educação e Pesquisa and revisits the period in which she served as editor-in-chief of the then Revista da Faculdade de Educação (1994-1996). Drawing on the interviewee’s academic trajectory – from her training and teaching career at Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo to her professorship at University of São Paulo (USP) –, the interview recalls the evolution of graduate programs in Education in Brazil and at USP, as well as the role of academic journals in the circulation of knowledge during and after the country’s re-democratization. Pimenta describes the various movements that transformed what was once an endogenous publication – almost exclusively dedicated to disseminating articles by professors from School of Education at USP (FEUSP) – into a journal increasingly open to the wider educational field: expanding and diversifying the Editorial Board and the pool of reviewers, encouraging submissions in other languages, and reconfiguring sections with local content. The interview maps, as a phenomenon parallel to the journal’s development, the epistemological and methodological turn in the field of Education – from predominantly positivist approaches to critical, qualitative, empirical, and collaborative perspectives. Alongside national research funding policies, these movements fostered a new research and publication culture in Brazil, leading to a gradual repositioning of the Revista da Faculdade de Educação within the field, while maintaining its relevance to teacher education and the debate on educational policy.