ABSTRACT
This article addresses the National Common Core Curriculum in Brazil, focusing both on its Introduction and the sections dedicated to music teaching. The paper draws on contributions from broad critical curricular perspectives, arguing for the access to powerful knowledge as a means of achieving social justice and democratic social relations. It outlines some aspects of an ongoing qualitative research project, which investigates the recent curricular debates about the consistent inclusion of music in the primary and secondary levels of schooling in Brazil. Preliminary results suggest that the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) relying on the development of pragmatic and generic competencies, is very far from promoting access to the pivotal epistemic structures of the discipline. At the same time, we hope to raise awareness about the potential powers provided by musical knowledge, which might help the Brazilian music education field to strengthen its curricular and epistemological bases.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their critique of the previous version of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Available at: https://movimentopelabase.org.br/quem-somos/. Access in: 12/03/2021.
2. Available at: https://movimentopelabase.org.br/duvidas-frequentes/. Access in: 12/03/2021.
3. By basic education we mean the compulsory schooling process in Brazil, which comprises three different segments: Child Education (for children aged from 0 to 5 years and 11 months), Elementary School (for children aged between 6 and 14 years old), and Secondary School (for youngsters between 15 and 17).
4. In this paper, we use the terms disciplinary, specialized, and powerful knowledge interchangeably.
5. It is relevant to mention that the competency-based reforms carried out in Brazil are located within a broader global (and transnational) discourse around competencies and outcomes, as we can identify in some international documents, for example: OECD (Citation2018). The Future of Education and skills. Education 2030. The future we want. (https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf); Global Partnership for Education (Citation2021). 21st Century Skills: What potential role for the Global Partnership for Education? A landscape review (https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/document/file/2020-01-GPE-21-century-skills-report.pdf).
6. By generative principles we mean the knowledge that offers conceptual understanding, thus being able to generate the production of new knowledge. For example, key structures in the process of composition, which might enable a wider range of expressive tools in the creation of new music.
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Notes on contributors
Mauricio Braz de Carvalho
Mauricio Braz de Carvalho has been a music teacher in Elementary School for twelve years. He is a Ph.D. student at the School of Education, University of São Paulo and, due to a scholarship from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, is currently undertaking a period of studies in the Institute of Education at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is engaged in groups of studies linked to discussions on music education, curriculum, and school knowledge, being a member of the research group ECCo: Escola, Currículo e Conhecimento (School, Curriculum, and Knowledge).
Cláudia Valentina Assumpção Galian
Cláudia Valentina A. Galian is a Professor at the School of Education, University of São Paulo, where she coordinates the research group ECCo: Escola, Currículo e Conhecimento (School, Curriculum, and Knowledge). Her researches focus on the curriculum and school knowledge in Brazilian Elementary School.