Curriculum Reform

The “Escola Sem Partido” (“Non-Partisan School”) movement for curriculum reform has resulted in various state and federal bills designed to censure discussion of social and political issues in schools. Even before these bills, the movement has already had a repressive effect on many schools and teachers. Purportedly aiming to remove political bias from education, the bills actually seek to reverse decades-long diversity and inclusion efforts in Brazilian schools.  

 

At the heart of the Escola Sem Partido movement is the so-called “war on gender ideology,” a broader global campaign by right-wing religious leaders to combat growing support for equal rights for women and LGBT people. In Brazil, Escola Sem Partido militants distort anti-bullying materials that introduce students to diverse family forms by claiming that the materials intend to   sexualize children or promote homosexuality. They also encourage students and parents to keep teachers under surveillance by recording or filming those who discuss controversial or progressive issues in the classroom and then sharing those recordings on social media.

 

As with similar right-wing movements in the United States over the last two decades, the Escola Sem Partido movement claims that left-wing educators are presenting propaganda, not “real” history, while conservative versions of history are “factual” and “objective.” In turn, any perspective that questions conservative interpretations is classified as “indoctrination.” All knowledge, however, involves interpretation: non-interpretive teaching does not exist. Supporters of Escola sem Partido are therefore not calling for education without interpretation, but rather education with the interpretation they prefer. Their attempts to censor classroom instruction generally violates the sine qua non of academic freedom: rigorous analysis and informed interpretation of empirical evidence, always subject to the critique of researchers.