Rereading ‘The Science textbook in Brazil’

Abstract

More than ten years after the publication of the book “O livro didático de Ciências no Brasil” [The Science textbook in Brazil], edited by Hilário Fracalanza and Jorge Megid Neto, in 2006, some of its propositions require a reanalysis due to changes in the National Textbook Program (PNLD). This paper compares excerpts from the book’s chapters with Didactic Book Guides produced by the Ministry of Education, researches on Science textbooks, and textbooks produced during the term of the PNLD. Despite the outdated assertions in the book of Fracalanza and Megid Neto, many of their statements remain valid until the present days, requiring but a relativization in light of the complex enunciative relations in which school textbooks are currently situated.

Keywords textbooks; science teaching; educational policy; utterances; PNLD