LITERACY HISTORY IN BRAZIL: NEW WORDS, OLD PRACTICES

Abstract

The objective of this study is show the historical of the literacy process in Brazil from mid-1880s to the 2012s, with the signing of the National Pact for Literacy in the Right Age (PNAIC in Portuguese acronym). The research presented here is the result of a work carried out during the master degree course in Education. During this long period, different contexts occur, like the theoretical imbalance between synthetic and analytical methods, from 1890 to 1920. Between the years of 1920s and 1970s, the ABC tests prevailed in the field. In sequence, there was technicality prevalence, with clear separation between theory and practice. The pedagogical eclecticism takes place during the military period, from 1964 to 1985, despising Paulo Freire´s pedagogy. The decades of 1980s and 2000s were marked by constructivist influences. From 2008 until the present, lettering (Letramento) is leading the theory, and it has been officially adopted in initial and continuing training. Unlike the previous one, historical-cultural theory is not part of the official teachers training in Brazil, although researches point to its critical potential. Thereunto, we observed, despite the theoretical clash between different literacy methods has been replaced by the constructivist discourse or the literacy, but throughout the History of Literacy, teaching-learning the code has always prevailed.