The Reform of Professional and Technological Education in Brazil: 2016 to 2021

Abstract

The objective of the article is to analyze the impacts of the current Brazilian educational counter-reform process on Professional and Technological Education (EPT). In this context, we start from the hypothesis that the counter-reform of High School has produced transformations in other fields of educational policy, including EPT, not restricted to the general education curriculum. The concept of counter-reform as elaborated by the political theory of Poulantzas is assumed as a theoretical presupposition. From a methodological way, initially, a group of legal-political mechanisms that relate simultaneously to High School and EPT were delimited. Then, through the Content Analysis technique, official documents that support such mechanisms were investigated, emphasizing the political-pedagogical and curricular principles. The mechanisms analyzed are: a) Common National Curriculum Base (BNCC) for High School, expressed in Resolution CNE/CEB No. 17/2018; b) New Paths Program (PNC), announced by the federal government in November 2019; c) National Curriculum Guidelines for EPT (DCNEPT), approved by Resolution CNE/CP No. 01/2021. In conclusion, we defend the thesis that a reform of the Brazilian EPT has been in development, since 2016, a reform of the Brazilian EPT. This reform has been constructed in three stages, chronologically comprised between the years 2016-2018, 2018-2021, and 2021 onwards. The emphasis given to the reform of the EPT is intended to characterize it as one of the sectors that make up the current context of neoliberal counter-reforms in Brazil, therefore, professional education is not exempt from deeper changes in the content of its policies.