Construction of meaning and discourses legitimation: the curriculum of São Paulo state schools

Abstract

 School curriculum has occupied a significant space in the contemporary educational debate. Taking cultural studies and Stephen Ball’s Policy Cycle as reference, we understand that curriculum development is a process embedded with meaning that points out political, and cultural, and social issues. Although the need for dialogue with the school community is praised in several official documents, the different mediations present in the design and implementation process has privileged policy makers discourse, producing a situation in which teachers have their voices rarely heard. Thus, the act of understanding which texts are legitimized in curriculum development becomes fundamental to unveil which meaning is intended by educational policies writers. The aim of this paper is to discuss this issue through curriculum proposed by the São Paulo State Education (SEE-SP).