In Brazil, postgraduate studies were created in 1965. Before that, the production of educational research was little developed in universities. Two main characteristics qualify the research produced in postgraduate programmes in education between 1965 and 1985: the “scholarization” of research production, a consequence of the institutionalization of postgraduate studies and the development of strong critical thinking as a reaction to the military governments. The years from 1985 until today are characterized by the consolidation and expansion of postgraduate studies and the theoretical framework of the research in this period is marked by the so called crisis of paradigms. Many researchers, who criticize the studies on society and education for not being able to cover the complexity and diversity of reality, resorted to a proposal of thematic and epistemological pluralism, privileging the studies of singular objects. Today the theoretical challenge is to articulate the specifically scholar (empirical data) with the general movement of history (totality). There are also other challenges such as how to improve the text or the “narration” of research reports, modify CAPES' system of evaluation of postgraduate programmes in education and institutionalize research in new universities of the country.
education; research; postgraduate programmes in education; evaluation