The Democratic and Popular Ideals and the Struggle for the Democratization of Education: Theoretical, Strategic and Tactical Controversies

Abstract

The article inquires some of the scope and limits of the Democratic and Popular Strategy (DPS) and its influence in the educational field made explicit through the struggles for the democratization of education. To understand the struggles for the democratization of education we recall: the production of educational research between the 1980s and early 2000s; the establishment of the Brazilian National Forum in Defense of Public Schools (BNFDPS), as it encompasses significant representation in the area; the construction of the National Plan for Education - The Brazilian Society Proposal o(1997), a document that synthesized in a unique way the struggle flags of the educational field; and the resolutions and government programs of the Workers' Party (WP) dealing with education, produced between the late 1970s and 2002, as they were the main working class' party in this period. The objective was to show how the proposals oriented by democratic and popular strategy were assimilated by the movements that fought for the democratization of education and in defense of the public school, which were the flags raised, tactics used and the consequences for the political organization. This is a bibliographic study that uses historical, conceptual, and documentary analysis. In our conclusions, we point out that there is a certain convergence between the educational research productions, the explicit demands in the National Plan for Education (1997), the organization of the BNFDPS, the WP resolutions and the democratic and popular ideals. The educational field, as part of the totality, expressed in a particular way the working class' practical consciousness.