Interviews

Couple of interviews yesterday - one with the ex-education secretary of Rio Grande do Sul, Lucia Camini, followed by a later chat with Maria Jose Vasconcelos, who is education editor for the Correio do Povo, one of the main newspapers in this state.

Interviewing Lucia was like speaking to Antenor Naspolini in Ceara the other week. You know what you´re going to hear, mainly because you´ve read most of their policies and achievements in state-published material. Personally I find the interviews with people who have less of a vested interest in presenting a positive image more rewarding - like unionists, public workers and journalists. However, having a few interviews like Lucia and Antenor is still useful, if only because of these people´s profiles when I get back to London and file the report for the university on how I spent the travel grant.

With Maria Jose I was being interviewed - primarily why I was interesting in studying education in Porto Alegre and the state of the education system in Britain. But I was able to turn the discussion around to her perception of what had happened during Lucia´s administration.

And I think I have a better idea what they were trying to achieve when they disbanded the state evalution system in favour of models which were determined by the schools themselves.

I´m also hoping to line up a few more interviews tomorrow, but it all depends on who is available.

PS For the record, my Correio do Povo interview should appear this weekend - hope they didn´t misquote me!