Who controls the curriculum? Notes on disciplinary communities from Ivor Goodson

Abstract

The present study investigates the devaluation of specialised teaching knowledge and the prioritisation of general education based on competencies and skills at the secondary level in Brazil. The dissolution of the curricular disciplinary organisation poses a risk to teaching identities, and understanding how teachers constitute epistemic and disciplinary communities is crucial. Public imposed policies that are distant from the reality of schools tend to be rejected by the agents involved in the school process. In Brazil, the National Curriculum Basis, a high school common core, is an example of a legal document that does not engage in dialogue with the cultural diversity in Brazil, while discredit the specific formation of teachers. From a historical approach, this research analyses the polysemy of school subjects towards the teacher’s specialised identities. The methodological dispositive comprises narratives from specialist high school teachers in Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Understanding how professionals organise themselves provides insight into the mechanisms of control and mediation in producing curriculum as socio-historical artifacts from power relationships and disputes. The struggle for control highlights the importance of teachers' agency in confrontation with neoliberal ideals for education and organising in subject or epistemic communities.