Politics and Pedagogy: How Brazilian Teachers’ Socio-Historical Perspectives Shape and are Shaped by Their Political-Pedagogical Commitments

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the political role of education, focusing on the humanities curriculum and teaching. First, it delves into Brazilian history and the development of the education system with a post-colonial critical perspective to situate the current challenges and contentions regarding schools. Then, it develops a multiple case study with eight Brazilian humanities teachers to investigate the relationship between historical perspectives and pedagogical commitments and how their working contexts hinder or favour the fulfilment of these commitments. This study engages with scholarship on human agency, historical consciousness, and identity formation to construe participants’ socio-historical perspectives and locate them in Brazil’s post-colonial history. The research concluded that political and historical perspectives hinge on people’s identities, founded on values, beliefs, and representations acquired throughout life. Such identities contain temporal and structural components, making some ideas incontrovertible even when confronted with contradictory information. Furthermore, identities are crucial in human adaptation because they provide psychic stability and group solidarity. With the emergence of modern states, nationalism became a central component of identity formation, and schools have played an essential role. However, this research indicates that core beliefs can change, and education has an important part in enabling students to go beyond the traditional narratives and have a broad historical perspective that acknowledges modernity as a generative and destructive force. Finally, this dissertation concludes that despite the progressive goals of the curriculum regarding the redress of historical injustices in Brazil, the ecologies of schools do not provide the necessary resources to enable teachers to enact these principles.