The issue of protagonism of young people in Brazilian High School: a criticism to the curriculum

Abstract

Presently, we have seen a conceptual recovery of the notion of protagonism of young people in Brazil. Moving away from the possibilities of social transformation that used to characterize its origins in the 20th century, protagonism is now grounded on both the valorization of students’ ability to make choices and their resulting accountability. With the publication of a national curriculum, it is possible to understand better the issue of school knowledge and the ways through which the protagonism of young people has become a curriculum principle. This article is derived from a documentary analysis of curriculum texts recently published in Brazil and took as a conceptual tool the notion of social epistemology. The hypothesis here is related to the emergence of an “imperative of authenticity” that regards students as eternal collectors of original experiences in an increasingly standardizing context that is little inclined towards differences and singularities