Neotechnicalism in Initial Teacher Training: An analysis of the National Curriculum Guidelines
RPGE – Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 28, n. 00, e023016, 2024. e-ISSN: 1519-9029
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v28i00.19267 10
Education and competencies reinforce economic growth, social inclusion, and
the strengthening of institutions. In a global knowledge-based economy,
adequate investment in human capital is an increasingly important component
of any inclusive growth strategy. Without sufficient investment in skills
acquisition, new technologies, and production processes are implemented
more slowly and do not translate into new growth models with higher value-
added activities […] The only way out of tough economic conditions is
growth, and in the long term, growth depends more than anything else on
equipping more people with better skills to collaborate, compete, and connect
in ways that advance our societies and use these competencies productively
(OCDE, 2018b, p. 32, our translation).
The National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), approved in 2017 to guide the
development of school curricula at all stages and modalities of primary education in Brazil, is
grounded in the “pedagogy of competencies.” The concept of competence appears in the
document 260 times and is defined as “the mobilization of knowledge (concepts and
procedures), skills (practical, cognitive, and socio-emotional), attitudes, and values to solve
complex demands of everyday life, the full exercise of citizenship, and the world of work.”
Although the BNCC is a broader and more detailed document, its epistemological foundation
aligns with the document developed by the OECD to guide curricular reforms worldwide. Like
the international document, built on the basis of hegemonic interests, “it contributes to the
Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) of the UN 2030, aiming to ensure the
sustainability of people, profit, the planet, and peace, through partnerships” (OECD, 2018b, p.
03, our translation), the BNCC is also “aligned with the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations
(UN)” (Brasil, 2018, p. 08, our translation).
In the section “The pedagogical foundations of the BNCC,” the document justifies its
“focus on the development of competencies” by relating it “to the approach adopted in
international assessments by the OECD, which coordinates the Program for International
Student Assessment […] and UNESCO, which established the Latin American Laboratory for
Assessment of the Quality of Education for Latin America” (Brasil, 2018, p. 13, our translation).
This relationship with the precursors of neoliberalism on a global scale explains the choice of
the principles of meritocracy and accountability in underpinning the section on “the purposes
of high school education.”
According to the BNCC (Brasil, 2018, p. 465, our translation), “It is necessary, first of
all, to assume the firm conviction that all students can learn and achieve their goals, regardless
of their personal characteristics, backgrounds, and histories.” In this sense, the document
reiterates the theory of human capital, limiting personal and professional success or failure to