A contextualização nos livros didáticos de química do PNLD de 2009 a 2015

Abstract

Contextualization in Chemistry Textbooks Approved by the National Textbook Program (PNLD) from 2009 to 2015 investigates the predominant conceptions of contextualization in High School Chemistry textbooks approved by the National Textbook Program (PNLD) for the 2009, 2012, and 2015 triennials, focusing on the chapters dedicated to the theme of Chemical Transformations (or reactions). It starts from the observation that, although contextualization is a central pedagogical principle in national curriculum documents, its operationalization in teaching materials is polysemic and often reduced to a superficial resource. The research adopts a qualitative approach of a documentary and analytical-interpretative nature, constituting a corpus of 15 works selected from the official PNLD approval catalogs. The theoretical framework articulates contributions from the field of Science Education, particularly the criticisms of the trivialization of contextualization and the propositions of the Science-Technology-Society-Environment (STSE) approach for citizen formation. Methodologically, an analytical categorical system inspired by content analysis was developed, distinguishing two macro-conceptions: Instrumental Reductionist Contextualization (Category C1), subdivided into Superficial Motivation (C1A) and Uncritical Description (C1B); and Critical Formative Contextualization (Category C2), unfolded into STSE Association (C2A) and Transformative Problematization (C2B). The systematic application of this analysis grid allowed for a meticulous examination of texts, images, experimental activities, and exercise proposals. The results demonstrate the stable and majority hegemony of Category C1 throughout the three triennials, present in approximately 80% of the works in each edition. This conception is characterized by the use of everyday life as a rhetorical "bait" (C1A), by technical and historical descriptions devoid of problematization (C1B), and by a clear fragmentation between socio-scientific context and conceptual development. In contrast, Category C2 consolidated itself as a minority and isolated paradigm, consistently materialized in the trajectory of the collection Química Cidadã (Citizen Chemistry), which adopted a thematic structure and a structuring STSE association (C2A). It is concluded that the 2009-2015 cycle did not register a collective pedagogical evolution, but rather the crystallization of a structural dichotomy and didactic stagnation, evidencing a profound mismatch between the official discourse of the PNLD and the materiality of the books distributed by it. The study, therefore, points to the need to rethink the program's evaluation criteria, the logics of editorial production, and teacher training strategies so that contextualization can effectively fulfill its transformative role in Brazilian chemistry education.