Políticas curriculares de alfabetização: desafios para o terceiro mandato do governo Lula

Abstract

Illiteracy in Brazil has been a long-standing struggle. The country’s literacy policies comprise a set of guidelines and programs designed to ensure that all Brazilians can develop both personally and socially. Since the early 2000s, Brazil has implemented various actions to address the challenge of illiteracy. The aim of this research is to identify the main literacy demands in Brazil during the presidential terms between 2003 and 2024. Through an empirical contextualization based on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory (2015), we articulate politics, power, and performativity to analyze the processes involved in the production of literacy policies. Using a brief historical contextualization, this research examines eight major literacy policies in Brazil within the selected timeframe, aiming to identify the primary demands that justify the creation of such policies. The policies analyzed include: Programa Brasil Alfabetizado, Pró-Letramento (Mobilization for Quality Education), Prova ABC (Brazilian Literacy Assessment at the End of the Literacy Cycle), Pacto Nacional pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa (PNAIC - National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age), Programa Mais Alfabetização (More Literacy Program), Política Nacional de Alfabetização (PNA - National Literacy Policy), and Compromisso Nacional Criança Alfabetizada (National Commitment to Child Literacy). Understanding policy as a project aimed at addressing specific societal demands, our findings suggest that literacy policies are shaped by key challenges, such as education quality, teacher training, overcoming inequalities, and age-grade distortion. Additionally, we observe how these demands reflect the broader challenges of the current presidential term, including policy discontinuity, assessment measures, infrastructure, resources, and budgets.