And you, what do you think school is?

• Autor(a) principal: Paredes, Sara
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Pereira, Pedro Duarte
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25767/se.v30i2.29380

The way we think school and, consequently, curriculum, is influenced by different ethical, social and pedagogical positions, by the historical time in which we live, by the political-social-cultural context in which we are inserted, by principles and beliefs that we reveal, the personal experience in school contexts, the dialogues that we develop and the worldview that we build as reflective beings (Author, 2021). However, when we regularly question the existence of the school institution, we are confronted by simple answers such as "to guard children and entertain them" and "to reproduce the established culture" (Coll et al., 2001, p.17). With the purpose of analyzing the perspectives that elementary school children have about what school is and what its purposes are, a case study was developed, taking as reference a Learning Centre. In this work, two data collection techniques were integrated, individual "micro-interviews" and group interviews. First, we discuss, from various perspectives of curriculum and education, what the purposes of the school are, and explore how the curriculum text reveals implications in the curriculum experienced, something that has an implicit dimension in the conception of school that each one builds. From an initial analysis, answers were obtained that privilege the academic nature of the school reality, favouring options such as "study, learn to read and do math". Such a position dialogues with other aspects that are particularly emphasized by the children, such as the dimensions associated with the student's craft, sociability, the built environment and a certain instrumental view of the curriculum.