MAIN EDUCATION PROJECT FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: REVERBERATIONS ON LATIN AMERICAN EDUCATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article derives from a study that investigated the reverberation of the ideas brought forth by the Main Education Project for Latin America and the Caribbean on educational and curricular policies for Brazilian, Chilean, and Uruguayan elementary education. The methodological path was outlined based on documentary research with discourse analysis while taking into account the contexts of influence and text production of the statements, opinions, and reports with regard to the Project. The study results indicated that: 1) this project has guided the course of educational reforms that took place in Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay; 2) the discussions and debates for the transformations of Latin American elementary education in the context of the project were based on a conception of education and development anchored in a humanist and educational perspective of labor; and, finally, 3) the 1980s were the foundation and development phase of the project's first activities, aiming to the quantitative expansion of elementary education, particularly in the number of enrollments, whereas the 1990s intensified the activities of the project with a major focus on the quality of education, via management and curriculum changes. The conclusion was that the ideas of the Main Education Project reverberated in the three countries studied as they have incorporated—and still do—the principles and objectives of the project in their respective educational and curricular policies, while engendering a kind of consensus among the educational and curriculum policies fostered in Latin America.