O Novo Ensino Médio (Lei Nº13.415/17) em Santa Catarina: flexibilização curricular e suas contradições

Abstract

The Reform of Upper Secondary Education (Law No. 13.415/2017) in Brazil introduced significant changes in curricular organization, particularly emphasizing curriculum flexibilization and the expansion of students’ possibilities of choice. Within the context of this reform, Elective Curricular Components (ECCs) became part of the curricular structure of state education systems. This dissertation analyzes the configuration of these components in the state education network of Santa Catarina, focusing on the area of Mathematics and its Technologies. The study investigates how the policy of curriculum flexibilization has been translated into the normative and guiding texts of the state network, and what tensions emerge between the discourse of expanding students’ choices and the concrete conditions of implementation in public schools. This is a qualitative study, documentary and bibliographic in nature, grounded in the analytical categories of the British sociologist Stephen J. Ball, particularly the notions of performativity and control at a distance. The study analyzes national and state legislation and normative documents, such as the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), Laws No. 13.415/2017 and No. 14.945/2024, as well as materials and guidelines produced by the Santa Catarina State Department of Education, taking the Elective Curricular Components (ECC) as its object of analysis. The results show that the discourse of student protagonism and the expansion of choices confronts structural limitations in schools, such as infrastructure and teacher availability, as well as the centrality of standardized materials and the intensification of teaching work. It is concluded that the ECCs express a dispute between the ideal of comprehensive public education and the managerial-corporate logic that guides the reform: the normative frameworks operate through a performative rationality, oriented toward goals, comparisons, and measurable results, marked by the rapid pace of reforms and by the individual responsabilization of schools and teachers, thereby weakening the comprehensive formative role of public schooling.