Juventudes e ensino médio: competências para quê?

Abstract

Being as youth is a complex generational and multidimensional phenomenon, it incorporates distinct youth universes, generating a need to pluralize the term youngnesses [or different ways of being young]. With the recent visibility of this social segment in the academic and political environs, we sought to bring a general panorama of the multiplicity of views coming from different branches of science geared toward the youth who are (or aren t) inserted in this liquid society. To explain the current moment of the educational policies directed toward high school, the trajectory of the emergence of public policies, mainly those related to education is outlined, following which a brief historical description is given of national education throughout the centuries, revealing why there is such a strong influence of multilateral organizations in educational policies. With the panorama of high school outlined and the observation of a marked presence of the pedagogy of competencies in the conformation of these policies and in the official documents coming from the federal government since the decade of 1990, we try to deal with the concept of competencies, as well as of the origin of such a pedagogy and of its presuppositions. The counterpoint used for the analysis of this pedagogy is the pedagogy of Paulo Freire. Upon lifting out the points of divergence between the two pedagogies, it becomes evident that, in spite of some apparently similar characteristics between the pedagogy of competencies and the Freire pedagogy, they serve different political, economic and social models and purposes. Based on this observation we discourse on the contributions theology can give to possible pedagogical practices directed to young students in high school. For such, we make recourse to a historical recovery of liberation theology, which allied to a theology of care, or eco-theology, and a liberation eco-pedagogy, can help envision possible curricular paths based on what is established in educational legislation related to high school. Finally, the young person needs much more than mere instrumental and utilitarian competencies to become more human, to Be More and contribute in the construction of another possible world.