A interdisciplinaridade no documento curricular do território maranhense para os anos iniciais do ensino fundamental: aproximações e distanciamentos na formação humana

Abstract

The master’s thesis entitled “Interdisciplinarity in the Curriculum Document of the Territory of Maranhão for the Early Years of Elementary Education: Convergences and Divergences in Human Formation,” conducted within the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE/UEMA) – Professional Master’s in Education, is situated within the research line of Educational and School Management. The central research question guiding this study is: How do teachers appropriate the concept of interdisciplinarity proposed by the Curriculum Document of the Territory of Maranhão (DCTM) to inform their pedagogical practice? The general objective of this research is to analyze teachers’ conceptions and practices of interdisciplinarity in the process of knowledge socialization in Elementary Education, as referenced by the Curriculum Document of the Territory of Maranhão. The study draws on critical theoretical foundations of interdisciplinarity (Frigotto, 2008; Severino, 2012; Tonet, 2006, 2013; Thiesen, 2008), curriculum (Apple, 2011, 2013; Malanchen, 2016; Moreira and Tadeu, 2013; Sacristán, 2000, 2013; Santomé, 1998) and human formation (Frigotto, 2012; Tonet, 2005, 2016; Mueller, Bianchetti and Jantsch, 2008) as analytical lenses for examining conceptions and practices of interdisciplinarity within the DCTM (Maranhão, 2019). To achieve the proposed objective, the research adopts a critical-dialectical approach, as proposed by Kosik (1969), Netto (2011) and Severino (2001). Data collection instruments include questionnaires and interviews, grounded in Gil’s (2002) methodological framework. The study was conducted in public municipal schools offering the Early Years of Elementary Education in Caxias (MA). The study involves specifically teachers working in grades 1 through 5. The findings indicate that although interdisciplinarity is widely present in Brazilian education reforms and is emphasized in the Curriculum Document of the Territory of Maranhão, particularly through comprehensive education and integrative themes, its materialization in the school context tends to be reduced to practices of content integration, often treated in a simplified manner and predominantly guided by teachers’ individual professional experience. In the Early Years of Elementary Education, teachers’ understanding moves among different conceptions, with a predominance of integration among disciplines, implemented both through spontaneous connections across subject areas and through methodologies such as texts, games and inquiry-based activities. However, despite recognition of its pedagogical potential, interdisciplinarity remains dependent on teachers’ intentionality and occasional opportunities and is constrained by limitations related to time, resources, infrastructure, and curriculum organization. This scenario results in sporadic and weakly systematized experiences, which led to the proposal of a Technical,Technological Product (PTT) in the form of an extension course structured as a seminar. The course is aimed at fostering the management of knowledge socialization from an interdisciplinary perspective, promoting the critical appropriation of the DCTM, strengthening the relationship between theory and practice, and contributing to overcoming the fragmentation of knowledge