Northern curricula, restructured by the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC): a (no) subversion against Eurocentrism and SoutheastcentrismAutoriaSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This article aims to explore a potential subversion against Eurocentrism and Southeastcentrism, guided by the Brazil’s National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) in Amazonian curricula. Specifically, aims the curriculum guidelines of the states of the Brazilian Northern region. The focus is on the curricular documents that structure the education of the northern states, particularly the teaching of History, shaped by these documents and how they engage with education for ethnic-racial relations, including the representation and agency of Indigenous, African and Amazonian peoples, their histories and identities. The analisys employs the concepts of “symbolic power, curriculum and content analysis” to analyse the documents. The seven curricular documents show that Northern curricula, to varying degrees, align with the BNCC in adressing ethnic-racial issues. However, that alignment subordinates Amazonian diversity to Eurocentric and Southeastcentric patterns, which underpin the BNCC’s neoliberal and neoconservative standardization. The Northern curricula analyzed highlight an internal colonialism driven by the Southeast, based on a selective tradition, which enacts symbolic violence against the culture, diversity and history of the Amazon region. Thus, the state curriculum guidelines fail to fulfill their intended purpose, which is to ensure of allocating 40% of the curriculum to a diversified component. Instead, this component, which is meant also to cover ethnic-racial issues, is relegated to a minimal and overly bureaucratic treatment of Amazonian diversity.