Trabalho docente e mudanças curriculares: um estudo sobre a Rede Municipal de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This research paper aims at analyzing the impact of the Curricular Propositions for the municipal schools in Belo Horizonte on the work of primary education teachers, delving into how that work is being organized and performed within one of those schools. Complying with its goal of identifying the transformations and permanencies occurring in the teaching work following the implementation of the new curricular proposition, it was conducted a case study of the ethnographic type by means of participant observation, document analysis and semi-structured interview as data-collecting tools. The data obtained are examined through the employment of content analysis resources. Moreover, the present paper discusses the issue at hand based on the studies on teaching work and teacher professionalization, prescribed curriculum, acting curriculum, and curricular policies. The analysis of the teaching work and its relationship to the curriculum implemented in municipal schools made use of the primary contexts of the policy cycle approach as developed by Richard Bowe, Stephen Ball and Anne Gold, namely the contexts of influence, text production, and practice. The results indicate very little participation of the teachers in the elaboration of the Curricular Propositions, which consequently affects the way they construe the propositions text. The collected data show the importance of the curriculum as guidance for the teachers work, although its jargon-filled writing is pointed out as a major hindrance to its full comprehension. This research paper also identifies the potentiality of teamwork and the importance of ongoing teacher formation in the implementation processes of curricular propositions, as well as the presence of controlling strategies aiming at monitoring the written planning and its execution in the classroom. The collected data also allowed an analysis of the aspects causing simultaneous sensations of intensified teaching workload and professional development. Finally, the analysis of the teaching work performed in the classroom indicates the need for new methodologies to help teachers work with the Curricular Propositions, considering the complexity of the classroom ambiance and the challenges inherent to their own profession.