Novo Ensino Médio de novo: atuação docente e configuração da escola de passagem

Abstract

This doctoral thesis was developed within the scope of the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGE), linked to the Faculty of Education (FACED) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). In order to understand, historically and contextually, how high school is constituted, this research proposes the concept of the school of passage, an expression that seeks to capture the multifaceted condition of this stage of education: simultaneously the end of basic education, preparation for the labor market, a bridge to higher education, a space for entrepreneurial training, among other purposes attributed by policies and official discourses. The study therefore questions how teachers’ agency in the face of educational reforms contributes to shaping high school as a school of passage. From this perspective, the thesis aims to investigate, historically and contextually, how educational reforms for high school in recent decades have been constituted through teachers’ practices, configuring this stage of education as a school of passage. Inspired by poststructuralist thought, the theoretical framework is grounded in the policy cycle theory (Ball; Bowe), the theory of enactment (Ball; Maguire; Braun, 2012), and the concept of context proposed by Lopes (2015), understood as an interpretative and discursive construction. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative approach and a decentered perspective, combining documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers from four state high schools — two located in Mossoró (RN) and two in Fortaleza (CE). The results indicate that the New High School reform has intensified the configuration of the school of passage, marked by its multifaceted and fragmented nature. It is concluded that high school education is, indeed, a school of passage, open to multiple pathways, whose configuration depends on the daily interactions, interpretations, and mediations constructed by teachers and students.