Biology subject in the Official Curriculum of State of São Paulo

• Main Author: Jennifer Caroline de Sousa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 2019-12-01
• Series: Investigações em Ensino de Ciências
• Subjects: currículo; ensino de biologia; educação básica
• Online Access: https://www.if.ufrgs.br/cref/ojs/index.php/ienci/article/view/1542

The Official Curriculum of the State of São Paulo was produced under a context of deep renewal of curricular documents in Brazil. Currently, the scenario built from the recent homologation of the National Curricular Common Base imputes to the federated units a new phase of remodeling their curricula. This paper presents an analysis of the Biology curriculum proposed for the Sao Paulo education system, taking as central questions the relationship between the theoretical assumptions and the definition of contents and skills for this curricular component and the compatibility between the provision of a common core of knowledge and representation of diversity. The content analysis carried out on the basic curricular document and the Teacher's Notebooks allowed to infer that the Biology curriculum still attends a more academic profile with the valorization of contents and abilities that require the mastery of strict concepts of the reference science and does not include cultural representativeness. Bearing in mind the legitimating power of the prescriptive curricula on certain perspectives in education, it is argued in favor to the debating on the new curricular profiles under development concerning the mentioned aspects and the requirements of our sociocultural context.