Concepção de currículo e de participação nas políticas curriculares para o município de Dourados (1997-2004): avanços e fragilidades

Abstract

This dissertation has as its objective the analysis of curriculum policies from 1997 to 2004 in grade schools of the Municipal Education system of Dourados, MS, concerning the concepts of curriculum and the local participation in the same. The theme is treated through qualitative research based on a review of literature on the subject, an analysis of documents and field research. The reference adopted for analysis was the cycle of policies of Ball (1992) and his associates, in order to understand curriculum policy from the macro-social to the micro-social context. The analysis of the context of the text showed that the municipal education administration from 1997 to 2000 was marked by consulting with segments of the school system. The policies encouraged the use of the National Curriculum Parameters as the only basis for planning and carrying out educational activities within the curriculum concept based on competence and ability. The administration of education in the years 2001 to 2004, through the Curricular Reorientation theme, had as its objective the construction of a dialogue based curriculum, based on problem-solving and the requests of the local community. In actual practice, it was shown that the curriculum policy that materialized from 1997 to 2000 showed as advances the proposition of a systematized curriculum and a leaning to the pedagogical work of the teacher and the school that led to discussions about the formation of a critical sense in the students. However, the weakness of this approach was the fact of the curriculum centered in the course work, and not in a concern for the local concerns and the legitimacy of local participation in the construction of curriculum policy. The advance in curriculum policy seen from 2000 to 2004 showed a dialogue about curriculum with local participation that was closer to the reality in the schools. The weaknesses of this approach pointed to a unilateral theoretical concept about the curriculum and gave indications of being a curriculum policy of the secretary of education, and not the government or the educational community. Based on our analysis, we presume that the Municipal Curriculum Policy from 2001 to 2004 was configured as an “alternative” policy and represented advances in relation to the concept of curriculum and local participation compared to the previous municipal curriculum policy. Today, the municipal curriculum policy is found closer to the ideas set out in the PCN's and, according to the majority of the respondents, there is a need for a curriculum that is closer to the local context.