Política curricular: as relações entre a educação do campo e o Referencial Curricular Amazonense (RCA)

Abstract

This study was developed and presented within the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), as part of Research Line 1: Education, State, and Society in the Amazon. It stems from the search for an answer to the following question: How is curricular guidance presented in the texts of the Amazonian Curriculum Framework (RCA) for the Early Years of Elementary Education, and to what extent does this document relate to rural education and its national guidelines? The central objective of the study was to analyze the relationship between rural education, as advocated by social movements and embedded in the national guidelines for basic education in rural areas, and the Amazonian Curriculum Framework (RCA) for the Early Years of Elementary Education. This analysis sought to understand how the curriculum text addresses (or fails to address) the specific needs of rural schools in Amazonas. To support the investigative process, three specific objectives were established. First, to historicize the struggles of rural workers for land rights, leading to the establishment of rural education policies within legal frameworks. Second, to discuss the historical assumptions and ideologies underlying current Brazilian curricular policy and its implications in the formulation of the Amazonian Curriculum Framework. Finally, the third objective was to examine the conception of rural education and curriculum as outlined in the RCA for the Early Years of Elementary Education and how it relates to the national guidelines for rural education. These objectives led to the organization of the dissertation into three distinct sections of discussion and analysis. The first section delves into the historical and political trajectory of social movements in Brazil, focusing on the struggle for land, housing, and the right to life, along with the broader movement for rural education. The second section explores the influence of national curricular policies, particularly the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), on the RCA and its potential implications for the formation of rural individuals in Amazonas. In the final section, the study critically examines how the RCA addresses Rural Education in the early years of Elementary Education, emphasizing its limitations, possibilities, and inherent contradictions. Drawing on Historical-Dialectical Materialism, as articulated by authors such as Cury (1979), Gadotti (2012), Colares (2021), Frigotto (1985, 1991), Netto (2011), Kosik (2002, 2011), Masson (2007, 2014), Marx (2004, 2007, 2008), Santos (2022), and Tozoni-Reis (2022), as well as key categories like totality, contradiction, and mediation, the methodological procedures of the study were conducted in complementary stages. In the first stage, a literature review was carried out, following the guidelines of Santos and Morosini (2021) and Severino (2007), using the CAPES thesis and dissertation database to assess how the topic was being discussed both regionally and nationally. This was supplemented by books and articles that provided support for the theoretical and epistemological framework of the study. The second stage involved a documentary analysis, based on the work of Cellard (2008) and Evangelista (2012), of both the RCA and the BNCC. This analysis allowed for the examination of how the RCA incorporates the principles of rural education and how it aligns with (or diverges from) the national policies set out for rural education, particularly in relation to the contradictions created by the application of neoliberal policies such as the BNCC in rural school curricula. The findings of the study indicate that, although the RCA was designed to address the specific needs of the Amazonian context, its project is often sidelined due to the imposition of standardized knowledge dictated by the BNCC. Furthermore, the curriculum text reflects neoliberal and market-driven interests, frequently overlooking critical perspectives and the unique demands of the Amazonian countryside. Important categories, such as labor, capitalism, and power relations, which directly affect rural realities, are often disregarded in the curriculum. As a result, by prioritizing the skills and competencies required by capitalist society, the RCA may undermine the development of an education system that fosters social and political awareness among rural working-class students.