What philosophy for high school?

Abstract

The Brazilian educational reform in the 1990’s, which had the State as the protagonist, the influence of International Agencies ideals, the background of a country redemocratization, modified the conception and purpose of education, determining that “[…] the content, the methodologies and forms of evaluation were organized so that the end of high school the student would demonstrate […] the understanding of Philosophy and Sociology concepts, necessary to the citizenship”. In this context, it was investigated what Philosophy teaching is being proposed for high school by official documents, by the academic debate and by teachers. The procedures included questionnaires and documental analysis. The objectives were to identify and describe the public school teachers’ proposal, and to propose a Philosophy teaching based on the ideas of counterhegemony (GRAMSCI) and of teachers as modifier intellectuals (GIROUX).