The diffusion of the discourse of a new university idea in REUNI Program
This study analyzes the diffusion of the discourse of a new university idea in REUNI Program, seeking to demonstrate the thesis that the discourse legitimation can be considered one of the determining factors in educational policy diffusion processes. The text is structured in three investigative axes: the emergence, the constitution, and the dissemination of such discourse, based on the interdisciplinary exercise between theoretical and methodological constructs of Policy Diffusion Studies and Discourse Analysis. The results reveal that the adapted copy predominated as a form of transfer within the scope of REUNI, manifested by very different processes depending on the moment and the context of the policy. At REUNI-MEC, the discourse was legitimized, in a bottom-up transfer movement, with the circulation of actors and ideas as the main mechanisms. At REUNI-Universidade there was a selective legitimization of the discourse, to conciliate the complexity of interests and domestic disputes, in a top-down transference movement, having as main mechanisms coercion and competition between universities. The REUNI program was not able to induce the deep transformation of universities as announced but it promoted significant advances in several aspects of Brazilian higher education.