Princípios epistémicos e sociais subjacentes à nova reforma curricular no ensino geral em Moçambique: uma abordagem sociológica

Abstract

 This paper interprets the epistemic and social principles underlying new curriculum reform in primary and secondary education in Mozambique. The interpretation is based on social realism framework, particularly on Shay’s theory of differentiated curriculum. The paper attempts to address the limitations of previous analyses of curriculum reform in Mozambique, based on social-realism; the paper also attempts to enlarge the available philosophically-oriented scholarship on curriculum principles in Mozambique, by proposing a sociological perspective. Methodologically, the paper is based on content analysis of the curriculum documents of primary and secondary education. Three conclusions are suggested: firstly, that the principles underlying these curriculum reforms seek to combine contextuality and verticality, by assembling knowledge forms with strong and weak semantic density and gravity; secondly, that that combination is oriented towards reinforcing contextuality and reducing verticality of knowledge; thirdly, that the concept of powerful knowledge underlying the reforms goes beyond theoretical knowledge.