From the BNCC of Upper Secondary Education to the Classroom: Refractions between the Prescription of Competencies and the Practice of History Teaching
History teaching. BNCC. Competencies. Refraction. Teaching practice
This dissertation investigates the processes of refraction in History education based on the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), emphasizing the centrality of competency as the structuring principle of the new curricular policy. We start from the understanding that the BNCC constitutes a systemic narrative guiding competency development, whose logic often differs from the conceptions and practices guiding History education, thereby generating tensions and challenges for teaching practice. We employ a qualitative, ethnographic analysis, combining documentary analysis of the BNCC, observations of pedagogical practices, and interviews with History teachers. Our theoretical framework primarily draws on Michel de Certeau's concepts of strategy and tactics, and Ivor F. Goodson's notion of refraction, understanding History teaching as a creative practice. We followed two male teachers and one female teacher from the state network in Ceará, specifically in Aracati. From the analysis of observed classes, four categories of refraction were identified: focus on teaching, conceptualism, evaluative deviation, and content-centrism. These categories illustrate how teachers interpret, reinterpret, and at times, silence curricular prescriptions in daily school life. Interviews highlighted four central factors contributing to these refractions: (1) teachers' lack of involvement in the BNCC formulation process, primarily authored by external agents outside the school environment; (2) conflicts in teachers' identities arising from new assumptions for History education; (3) the polysemy and fragmentation of the competency concept, allowing for diverse appropriations; and (4) the scarcity of consistent formative processes regarding new prescriptions, indicating a structural void concerning proposals. Additionally, teachers' discourses revealed responses to the systemic narrative through adaptation, reinterpretation, and occasionally partial rejection of normative document elements, reaffirming the centrality of historical knowledge and teaching autonomy. The research contributes to the debate on the BNCC's impacts on History education, highlighting the limits, tensions, and possibilities for teachers in the face of contemporary educational reforms.