Sociology in high school in a changing world: Question of perverse confluence

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the Sociology Pedagogical Workshops offered monthly for the continuing formation of high school teachers of public schools, as well as for the formation of teachers certified in Social Sciences by the Laboratory of Teaching Society and Culture (LESC, PUC-Campinas - 1998- 2007). The concept of 'perverse confluence' allowed us to rethink the workshops through the dispute between the democratic and neoliberal political projects, once school and education have, since the beginning of 1990, undergone transformation that have reached academician relations, increasingly fragmented and deregulated. In addition, besides the implementation of large-scale assessments with a ranking among public schools, these started to be disputed by civil society's projects of non-formal education in 'partnerships' little concerned with an internal democratic discussion aiming to adapt to the concrete reality of schools. Such challenges as far we can judge, are one of the manifestation focuses of 'perverse confluence' in the country, hardly noticed during those LESC years and perhaps even today.