Entre a invasão e a síntese político-curricular: uma análise Materialista Histórico-dialética freireana das políticas curriculares de Sorocaba para a Educação Física (2011–2025) a partir do Movimento de Reorientação Curricular de São Paulo

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the periods between 2011 and 2025 in which the development of curriculum policies for Physical Education in Sorocaba moved closer to or further away from a liberating conception of curriculum policy, using the São Paulo Curriculum Reorientation Movement as a reference. It is grounded in the understanding that the curriculum is not merely a neutral document for organizing content, but rather an expression of societal projects, political disputes, power relations, and educational intentions. To this end, the study contextualizes the history of Brazilian curriculum policies, the specificities of Physical Education within this trajectory, and the Physical Education Renewal Movement as an important milestone in the construction of critical and counter-hegemonic possibilities for the field. The research is theoretically grounded in Historical-Dialectical Materialism and Paulo Freire’s Liberating Education, understanding the São Paulo Curriculum Reorientation Movement as a concrete manifestation of a liberating curriculum policy. The methodological approach is qualitative and comprises bibliographic research and documentary analysis, with the data examined through Discursive Textual Analysis. The documentary corpus, consisting of Sorocaba’s curriculum documents, was analyzed according to four categories: autonomy, educators’ continuing professional development, collective participation, and the valuing of the relationship between theory and practice. The analysis led to the emergence of the interpretive categories of political-curricular invasion and political-curricular synthesis, which were used to understand the development of curriculum policies in Sorocaba. The findings indicate that this process did not occur linearly, but was characterized by convergences, divergences, contradictions, and ruptures in relation to the principles of a liberating curriculum policy. Among the documents analyzed, the second version of the Reference Framework showed the closest alignment with political-curricular synthesis, whereas the Curriculum Matrix, the SESI Curriculum, and, to some extent, the São Paulo State Curriculum and the Planning Guidelines Handbook revealed tendencies toward political-curricular invasion. It is argued that overcoming this scenario requires the establishment of a curriculum reorientation movement in Sorocaba, developed through a democratic, dialogical, collective, and ongoing process, with a view to fostering a critical and humanizing education committed to transforming concrete reality.