The role of fantasmatic narratives in the educational evaluation of Pernambuco:

from 'constitutive lack' to neoliberal transformation

Abstract

Within the field of educational policies, this article aims to explore the ideological reasons that lead individuals to engage with educational evaluation in Pernambuco, as it is presented in the Public Management Modernization Program - Goals for Education. From the perspective of Laclau and Mouffe's Post-structuralist Discourse Theory, along with Glynos and Howarth's Critical Explanation Logics, the study discusses how standardized educational evaluation in Pernambuco employs fantasmatic narratives, promising transformation and completeness to address the 'constitutive lack.' Discourse Theory allows for critical insights into ideology beyond class struggles and also highlights how the concept of the 'constitutive exterior' relates to identity construction. When analyzing this policy, we infer that modernizing phantasmic narratives prompt rationalization and commitment to the neoliberal standardizing practice; however, they prove incapable of containing unpredictability in the process of subject identification.