Contributions to a cognitive analysis of the teacher evaluation policy

The definition of new rules for the evaluation of school teachers was established in Portugal with the publication of Decree Law no. 15/2007, 19th January. Evaluation has now become based on competitive mechanisms, accountability and the possible influence of supranational regulating entities in the elaboration of national policies. Instruments have suddenly emerged from this “culture of performance”, making the nature and format of the knowledge acquired more complex and they appeal to the recomposition of relations between the State and large international organisations. Knowledge is envisaged with a focus that comes from its growth and diffusion on a global scale.Evaluation, in the form of instrumental regulation, intervenes in the construction of agenda and policy-making and can be regarded as a political process. Knowledge, as a regulating instrument, implies that the type of knowledge mobilised through regulating instruments and the way its reception is processed must be perfected. Consequently, finding the origin of this new policy and analysing the changes in regulation forms through its study is what matters, viewing the instruments as policy-making products and the frames of reference as producers of these policies.