Learning and the Formation of Historical Consciousness – a Dialogue with Brazilian Curricular proposals

Abstract

This is a report of research about the development of concepts of historical learning in Brazil from 1917 until 2006, but especially in the period 1931 to 2006. The aim of this investigation is to examine the learning concepts which have been behind the structure of the Brazilian curricular proposals across a long period of time, indeed from the Francisco de Campos (1931) reforms until the present curricular proposals. The outline proposed in this work includes an analysis of curricular documents from the National History Curricular Parameters for elementary and high schools (1997; 1998). The methodology adopted is a combination of qualitative investigation through case studies as well as documentary and bibliographic investigation. Some studies which had been undertaken to appraise the curriculum and school subjects as socially constructed (Goodson, 1997) were used as models to guide the critique. The curriculum can be seen as a visible text within the concept of the 'disciplinary code of history' (Fernandez Cuesta, 1997; 1998). Initial results indicate the predominance of the concept of historical learning as a set of competences based on educational psychology, rather than on the proper (formal, orthodox) science of history (Lee 2003; 2006).