This presentation examines the intervention of political-administrative elites in the conception and implementation of national education policies and programs. The study addresses the involvement of high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Education, policymakers, and experts from national higher education institutions and international organizations; and the focus is on their participation in developing and implementing a national pilot program that has served as the main instrument for a policy aimed at promoting curricular differentiation in Portuguese schools. The significance of this program, known as the "Project for Curricular Autonomy and Flexibility in Primary and Secondary Education," lies in its consistent implementation and generalization during recent years under the current government. The pilot program took place in 2017 and 2018 under the auspices of the Directorate-General for Education (DGE), the central organization responsible for implementing policies related to the pedagogical and didactic components of education, as well as providing technical support for policy formulation. Key actors involved in the program include high-ranking officials of the DGE, members of the cabinet of the Secretary of State for Education, a specialized committee (a body of national consultants from the academy with conception and monitoring roles), two national experts on curriculum studies, OECD officers, and members of the Working Group on Schools, which is part of the EU's European Education Area strategic framework. Therefore, we will present these elites at work, focusing on their interdependencies throughout the creation and implementation of the pilot program. It analyses two dimensions: the social dimension, which captures the actors' social characteristics, status and professional trajectories, their formal roles, and their political strategies, i.e., how they construct their power relations by mobilizing different resources to influence decision-making and implementation processes; and the cognitive dimension, which examines the main categories they use to make sense of the education sector and the role of knowledge and beliefs in shaping educational policies. Main methods include documental analysis and interviews with key actors. Additionally, tacit knowledge from authors generated from involvement in the project or created from experience in central management bodies will be mobilized.

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