Se você não quer, faça matrícula no pagou-passou da esquina. Concepções de currículo e avaliação: Diálogos sobre um colégio de excelência

Abstract

This study questions the connections between the meanings of curriculum, evaluation, and quality among teachers at Colégio de Aplicação da UERJ, connections which support the renown of the institution, considered excellent due to the results reached by students. The goal is to identify these concepts (knowledge, curriculum, and evaluation) behind the production of meaning in high quality education. The research is based on the concepts of discourse and hegemonies developed by Ernesto Laclau in his theories, problematizing the processes of exclusion that end up in a definition of quality education as based on a priori results. To solidify this case study, we did interviews with eight teachers in all areas at CAp/UERJ. Beside these testimonials, we consulted institutional documents to help contextualize and better understand how the school works. Our preferred tool was data analysis, when reading and interpreting the empirical material. It's important to highlight that there was no intention of passing judgment on the conflicts present in that institution when it comes to the ideas circulating inside of it, and that every voice is taken as a temporary interpretation by each interviewed person. Their experiences were not reinterpreted by us. It was possible to conclude that positioning CAp/UERJ as an excellent school is a constant movement in which teachers, along with other social subjects, not always directly linked to that school, fight for power in producing the curriculum, amidst conflicts that go beyond the school walls. The criticism is focused on the defense of a symbolic repertoire which may even be transmitted in different forms, through multiple activities, but are really solidified during evaluations, when they demand equal understanding from different individuals, especially toward the end of the school years. Still, although they may be considered hegemonic and seem to have existed for a while, this is a precarious position of power, happening in between conflicts and tension in the curricular space. So, the purpose of our investigation is shaking the foundations of stable positions of power and their particular interests, allowing other positions to rise, creating a division between multiple discourses.