The communication focuses on knowledge as a policy instrument and a vehicle used to regulate the social actors. The goal is to analyse how knowledge transfer occurs, how it flows, thus performing its regulatory role, within and throughout a specific policy process: the design and implementation of a new policy concerning the external evaluation of schools in Portugal (EES). In 2005, an evaluation framework was produced (commissioned to a team of experts by the Education Ministry) including indicators, criteria, data collection guidelines, reporting templates, scripts to conduct meetings, as well as references within the scientific literature and the professional know-how of inspectors and evaluators. In 2006, the policy was launched by the Ministry’s Inspectorate, replicating the goals emanated by European authorities, such as to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" (EU Council, 2000).

Presented as "a central instrument of educational policy making" (art. 3, Law 31/2002) the policy of EES encourages the processes of quality improvement and performance of schools and raises awareness of community members for an active role in the educational process, encouraging the involvement of school actors, such as teachers and management, parents and experts, recommended by the EU Council and Parliament (EU Official Journal, 2003: 53). Moreover, it must be understood in the context of the on-going trend of development of new governance strategies based on the ‘post-bureaucratic’ mode of regulation (Barroso, 2000, Maroy & Dupriez, 2000; Maroy, 2008),  in which knowledge is used mainly to produce and circulate instruments as guidelines for action, examples of best practices, benchmarks and argumentation templates. With the goal of managing the way actors think about reality, the intended regulatory outcome presupposes autonomous and reflexive actors using, reproducing and transforming the instruments’ knowledge, inscribed in texts and (or) enacted by mediators.

Following Freeman and Sturdy (2011: 1), the role of knowledge in policy making is conceived as “based not on who knows what, how, why but on the form that knowledge takes”, focusing on the three phases: embodied knowledge as the knowledge held by the actors; inscribed knowledge as the knowledge held in artefacts like documents; enacted knowledge, because embodied and inscribed knowledge need to be enacted to be meaningful (Freeman, Smith & Sturdy, 2009). We are interested in the transactions going on throughout the design and implementation of the policy: how the various artefacts and events it entailed shaped the way different actors think about education and schooling.

Afonso, N., & Costa, E. (2010, Setembro). The external evaluation of public schools - The case of Portugal. Final Report. Orientation 3 – WP – 13, Project KNOWandPOL. Available at: http://www.knowandpol.eu/ Barroso, J. (2000). Autonomie et modes de régulation locale dans le système éducatif. Revue Française de Pédagogie, 130, 57-71. European Council (2000). Presidency Conclusions. Available at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/00100-r1.en0.h Freeman, R., & Sturdy, S. (2011). Knowledge in policy: embodied, inscribed, enacted. Non published paper. Freeman, R., Smith-Merry, J., & Sturdy, S. (2009). Regulation, Knowledge and the International Organization: WHO's Mental Health Declaration for Europe. Report on Orientation 3 – WP 12, Project KNOWandPOL. Available at http://www.knowandpol.eu/ Law 31/2002, december 20. Maroy, C. (2008). Vers une régulation post-bureaucratique des systèmes d’enseignement ?, Sociologie et Sociétés, 40(1), 31-54. Maroy, C., & Dupriez V. (2000). La régulation dans les systèmes scolaires. Proposition théorique et analyse du cadre structurel en Belgique francophone. Revue Française de Pédagogie, 130, 73-87. Official Journal (01/03/2001).Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2001 on European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education, 51-53. Available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2001:060:0051:0053:EN:PDF