Geography education in Brazil: official prescriptions in neoliberal times

Abstract

In the mid nineteen nineties, a State policy was passed aimed at promoting a reform in Brazilian education. Among the various lines developed by the new law, special attention was given to the basic school curriculum, and in particular, the teaching of Geography at this level of education. My analyses, resulting from a qualitative study using bibliography and document surveys, led me to conclude that the curriculum prescribed by the Brazilian government for the teaching of geography, as embodied in the ‘National Curricular Parameters’, is a response to the need for the school, and this discipline, to adapt to the new demands imposed by capitalism. This work seeks to demonstrate that at this time, when neoliberal ideas are causing a colonization of the education and of the curriculum, traditional concepts of school geography, be they positivistic or dialectical, have become an obstacle to the new role attributed to schools. To counteract them, a new school geography, with a phenomenological and constructivist basis, was chosen by the State for promotion in schools.