Public Education in Paraná

between State prescription and teacher autonomy

Abstract

This study investigated how neoliberal public education policies have interfered with the professional autonomy of geography teachers in the municipality of Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil. Motivated by experiences during supervised teaching placements and by concerns regarding the limits imposed on teachers’ professional practice, the study’s overarching objective was to understand the impacts of these policies on teachers’ pedagogical work. The research methodology comprised a literature review grounded in critical scholarship on platformization and curricular control, as well as the administration of a questionnaire to teachers working in the state public-school system. The findings indicate that teacher autonomy has been systematically undermined through curriculum standardization practices, the imposition of digital platforms, requirements to meet performance targets, and the centralization of assessment. These mechanisms generate bureaucratic overload, erode teachers’ critical role, and contribute to the precarization of working conditions, thereby creating circumstances that may affect teachers’ physical and mental health, as well as the teaching profession and the school’s social function. The study was organized into three sections: literature review, methodology, and analysis and presentation of results. In conclusion, teacher autonomy was identified as an essential condition for democratic and meaningful education, and its defense is urgent in the face of the expansion of neoliberal policies that disregard the complexities of pedagogical practice and the rights of education professionals.