Entre heranças e rupturas: revisitando princípios e concepções de formação humana nas práticas curriculares

Abstract

This study deals with the theme of human formation in the curricular practices of teachers in the final years of school at a municipal public school in São Leopoldo. The aim of the research is to understand the principles and conceptions of human formation that guide teaching curricular practices. The research-formation methodology (Josso, 2007, 2010) was used to lead the teachers through processes of reconstructing themselves and their formative trajectory, through oral and written narratives. Through meetings inspired by the African worldview, organized based on Adinkra symbolism, the teachers were able to reflect, individually and collectively, on the principles and conceptions of human formation, recognizing the different influences that manifest themselves in their curricular practices. For contextualization purposes, the study analyzed the effects on curricular practices of two curricular policies that are divergent in relation to the human formation project: the BNCC (Brazil, 2018), which represents a standardization policy, aligned with the assumptions of educational neoliberalism, and the DOCT-SL (São Leopoldo, 2021), which declares itself to be a Freirean-based policy, assuming a role of resistance in the face of neoliberal impositions in education. Charlot (2020); Freire (1987, 1996) and Nóvoa (2022) were the main authors of the theoretical foundation, articulating their ideas through the theoretical categories of human formation, policies and curricular practices, and the writings of Apple (2001, 2017); Arroyo (1999); Ball; Maguirre and Braun (2016); Biesta (2012, 2018); Dalbosco (2021); Dal'Igna (2023); Fritsch (2017); Laval and Vergne (2021); Leite and Fernandes (2010); Morin (2000, 2005) among others. It was found that curricular practices are organized based on principles and conceptions of human formation that teachers have built up over the course of their training, with little critical reflection and collective discussion about policies and other elements that interfere with them. The study identified the presence of contradictory and incoherent discourses and practices, in which discourses related to critical and progressive theories, with a strong presence of Freirean ideas, were confronted by the predominance of conservative curricular practices aligned with the neoliberal project. Despite this, it was found that the teachers recognize these contradictions, as well as the need to change their practices, but this recognition in itself is not enough to mobilize the necessary transformations, since there are many factors involved, including issues internal to the teachers themselves and the whole process of building their personalities and professionalism (Nóvoa, 2009). The pressures of curricular policies of standardization, performativity and accountability, and the demands of society, added to the influences of a formative trajectory strongly marked by conservative and/or traditional practices, require teachers to constantly reflect and affirm what they believe, together with their colleagues, in the context of the school. This movement calls for the construction of a culture of collegiality and another institutionality in initial and continuing training (Nóvoa, 2009). Research and training proved to be a powerful methodological resource for provoking in-depth reflections on teaching and on the principles and conceptions that guide curricular practices. Such reflections and awareness-raising, in an individual and collective spiral movement, are essential for a debate on contemporary education as a public good and a common good (Nóvoa, 2022), leading to human formation based on the principles of solidarity and democracy.