Escola para quê? Um estudo de inspiração arqueogenealógica sobre as funções da escola nos discursos da UNESCO

Abstract

This thesis explores the functions of the school in UNESCO's discourses over a temporal scope that begins in 1948, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and extends to 2022, culminating in UNESCO's latest report, titled Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education. The choice of this theme stems from reflections on the role of the school in contemporary times and its articulation with neoliberal rationality— a form of governmentality that standardizes and naturalizes institutions and their social practices according to principles oriented towards the entrepreneurialization of individuals, who are thus shaped by the logic of human capital. UNESCO was chosen as the main enunciating institution, mediating knowledge-power relations regarding the social role of the school, due to its status as a global reference for validation and international endorsement. This organization is one of the most significant normative, regulatory, and guiding authorities on educational policies worldwide. Given the theme and the initial hypothesis that there are conceptual shifts and resignifications over time concerning elements central to the educational context—such as "universal right," "citizenship," "equality," "integral education," "human development," "social transformation," and "lifelong education"—this study addresses the following research problem: What discourses about the functions of the school are produced and disseminated by UNESCO? How are these functions re-signified through the discontinuities generated within and by neoliberal rationality? To investigate these issues, the general objective is to analyze UNESCO's discourses on the functions of the school in its documents. The specific objectives are: a) to trace UNESCO's potential documents to identify its discourses on the functions of the school; b) to compose the empirical corpus of the research by selecting the traced documents; c) to excavate and describe the continuities and discontinuities in UNESCO's discourses on the functions of the school; and d) to analyze the statements about the functions of the school in the texts comprising the empirical corpus, considering the knowledge-power relations engendered within and by (neo)liberal rationality. The theoretical framework is inspired by Michel Foucault’s theories and other scholars who have worked within his methodological approaches, conceiving history as a narrative framework and documents as monuments. This research traverses the archaeological domain by excavating UNESCO's discourses and describing the events based on their conditions of possibility. It also ventures into the genealogical domain by analyzing and problematizing the power relations embedded in UNESCO's statements and their entanglement within and by neoliberal rationality. To systematize the findings, the research outcomes are organized into the following categories of analysis: 1. Educating for Democracy and Citizenship; 2. Lifelong Education and the Educating City; 3. Educating to Meet Basic Learning Needs; Educating for Human Capital (learning to know, to do, to live together, and to be); 4. Educating for Sustainable, Inclusive Human Development; 5. Educating for Global Citizenship and the Challenges of Social Transformation; and 6. Educating for a Solidary and Collaborative Society. Considering neoliberalism as a rationality permeating all spheres of life, including education, this thesis is grounded in the works of Ball, Brown, Dardot and Laval, Gadelha, Klaus, Lopes-Ruiz, and Sennett. These scholars, in convergence with Foucault's approaches, provide insights into understanding this ensemble of knowledge that shapes a new mode of governance, marked by the principles of competition, self-entrepreneurship, and the logic of human capital.