IN SEARCH OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION: THE CASE OF BRAZIL by Ignez Martins Tollini Thesis submitted in part-fulfillment for the Ph.D. degree of the University of London Institute of Education February 1997 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to: Vianello and Ritinha (both "in memoriam"), representing a past of love and commitment to noble ideals; Helio, representing a happy, supportive and . fruitful present; Grace, Jerzy, Isabela and Alana, Helio, Patricia, Hugo and Priscilla, Paulo, Monica, Pedro and Gabriel, representing a bright future. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to offer special thanks to Dr. Robert Cowen for his invaluable 2.iiidance in this thesis. His patience and dedication encouraged me during this journey. I also would like to thank my teachers from the "Sacre Coeur de Jesus" and "Notre Dame de Sion" in Brazil, from whom I learned the intellectual discipline I would need many years later for this thesis. My grateful thanks are due to many other teachers, among them, Dr. Stella dos C. Guimardes Trois, adviser in my Master's Degree at the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Dr. Yeakey, adviser for my Master's Degree at Purdue University, United States. I would like also to extend my thanks to Dr. Maria Cowen. Brazilian lecktor in the University of London Institute of Education, for her excellent advice and her kindness and patience. I would like to express my gratitude to colleagues in the Secretary of Education - Educational Foundation of the Federal District, Ministry of Education of Brazil, and University of Brasilia, who were so kind as to obtain documents I needed for this thesis. I am also grateful to CAPES/MEC for financial support for a period during the writing of this thesis. And finally, but most important, of special importance to me, I would like to offer my thanks to the "committee" of Saints who interceded with God on my behalf during the long but happy journey I have made while writing this thesis. LIST OF CONTENTS IN SEARCH OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION: THE CASE OF BRAZIL DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF TABLES 8 ABSTRACT 9 CHAPTER ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM 10 1 . 1 - PURPOSE. ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION 10 1. - The Time Frame of the Thesis: A Descriptive Overview 11 I.1 - The Arguments of the Thesis 18 .1.3 - Organisation of the Thesis 1.2 - NEW THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES .2.1 - The First Theoretical Perspective: Two Complementary Approaches on the State 15 1.22 - The Second Theoretical Perspective: The State's Relationship to Education 32 .2.3 - The Third Theoretical Perspective: Strategies of the State in Education 37 1.3 - RESTATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND ARGUMENTS OF THE THESIS 39 1.4 - CONCLUSION 44 ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER ONE 48 CHAPTER TWO THE VARGAS ERA (1930-1945): A MILESTONE IN THE SEARCH FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 56 2.1 - PURPOSE, ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION 56 2.2 - THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 57 2.3 - THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY DUCATION POLICY 63 4 2.4 - THE POLITICAL BASIS FOR THE SOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROBLEMS 68 2.4.1 - The Convergence of Forces 69 2.4.2 - The Educational Movement of the Pioneers of Education 72 2.5 - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 77 2.5.1 - Starting Expansion 81 2.6 - CONCLUSION 85 ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER TWO 88 CHAPTER THREE THE REDEMOCRATISATION PERIOD (1946-1964): EXPANSION OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 95 3.1 - PURPOSE, ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION 95 3.2 - THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 96 3.3 - THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 104 3.4 - THE POLITICAL BASIS FOR THE SOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROBLEMS 108 3.4.1 - The New Political, Economic, and Social Structures 109 3.4.2 - The Debate on the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) 113 3.4.3 - The 1959 Manifesto of the Pioneers 117 3.5 - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 12 1 3.6 - CONCLUSION 126 ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER THREE 130 5 CHAPTER FOUR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION UNDER THE MILITARY REGIME (1964-1985) 136 4.1 - PURPOSE. ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION 136 4.2 - THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 137 4.2.1 - The Construction of Policy in the First Decade (1964-1974) 137 4.2.2 - The Construction of Policy in the Second Decade (1975-1985) 145 4.3 - THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 149 4.4 - THE POLITICAL BASIS FOR THE SOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROBLEMS 155 4.5 - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 161 4.6 - CONCLUSIONS 174 ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER FOUR 178 CHAPTER FIVE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE NEW TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY: THE NEW REPUBLIC AND THE COLLOR GOVERNMENT (1985-1992) 185 5.1 - PURPOSE. ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION 185 5.2 - PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE NEW REPUBLIC (1985-1990) AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 186 5.3 - THE DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 192 5.4 - THE POLITICAL BASIS FOR THE SOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROBLEMS 196 5.5 - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 200 6 5.6 - PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION UNDER THE COLLOR GOVERNMENT (1990-1992) AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY 104 5.7 - THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION POLICY '09 5.S - THE POLITICAL BASIS FOR SOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROBLEMS '12 5.9 - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STATE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 5. I() - CONCLUSION ENDNOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE THESIS /33 6. I - CONCLUSIONS '34 6.1.1 - Conclusions about quantitative measures 134 6.1.2 - Conclusions about the arguments and "areas of sensitivity" introduced in Chapter One /43 6.2 - RECOMMENDATIONS 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 57 7 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Brazil: Expected demand, number of public schools, and ratio between number of children and schools, by region and states, 1930 80 2. Brazil: Number of public and private elementary schools, 1933 and 1945 81 3. Brazil: Expansion of enrolment in elementary education, public and private schools. 1933-1945 83 4: Brazil: Evolution of total enrolment in elementary education, 1950-1960 123 5. Brazil: Enrolment and completion rates in public elementary education in two groups of states. 1955-1958 125 6. Brazil: Population from 7 to 14 years of age with respective schooling rates, by zone, 1970 163 7. Brazil: Enrolment and completion rates in public elementary education in two groups of states, 1971-1978 165 8. Brazil: "Non-completion rates" in public elementary education in two groups of states. 1971-1978 166 9. Brazil: Enrolment and completion rates in public elementary education in two groups of states, 1979-1986 170 10. Brazil: "Non-completion rates" in public elementary education in two groups of states, 1979- 1986 171 11. Brazil: 1979 Enrolment and "non-completion" rates in 1982 and 1986 in public elementary education, by region 203 12. Brazil: "LeiLios" teachers in public elementary education, by administrative level, 1987 219 8 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the inability of the Brazilian State to accomplish effectively its constitutional duty to deliver elementary education to all children of 7 to 14 years of age. The overall argument in this thesis is that there is a lack of "political will- on the part of the Brazilian State to resolve this problem. The concept of "lack of political will is theorised as "lack of conditions existing in the State enabling it to be an actor in elementary education". The thesis has six chapters. Chapter One introduces the problem, the arguments, and the structure of the thesis, and discusses the theoretical basis of the thesis. Chapter Two tests the arguments against data on the relationship of the State to elementary education in the Vargas Era (1930-1945). Chapter Three tests the arguments against data on the relationship of the State to elementary education during the Redemocratisation Period (1946-1964). Chapter Four compares the arguments with data on the State's relationship to elementary education during the Military Regime (1964-1985). Chapter Five examines the arguments in relation to data on the relationship of the State with elementary education in the period of the New Republic and the Collor Government (1985-1992). Finally, Chapter Six presents the Conclusions and Recommendations of the thesis. The main conclusion of the thesis is that it is possible to create the necessary conditions for the State to function as an actor in elementary education. 9 CHAPTER ONE AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM 1.1 - PURPOSE, ARGUMENT AND ORGANISATION Overall. this thesis analyses the problem of the inability of the Brazilian State to accomplish effectively its constitutional duty to deliver elementary education to all children. Thus, the purpose of the thesis is to develop an understanding of this complex problem. Chapter One includes a general survey of elementary education in Brazil for the past six decades. This survey identifies the inability of the State(1) to provide elementary education(2). The chapter also identifies the main lines of the argument tested in this thesis, the chapter sequence, and the organisation of the time periods. The chapter also identifies and examines selected theoretical perspectives from the literature on the State and uses this analysis to restate the problem of the thesis. This theoretical basis will then be a counterpoint of the analysis of the remaining chapters in the thesis. To orient the reader it is useful to begin by outlining something of the Brazilian political and legal context for the construction of elementary education policy, and by clarifying the issue of time periods. 10 1.1.1 - The Time Frame of the Thesis: A Descriptive Overview This section presents a brief account of elementary education during the past six decades which are divided into four periods: the Vargas Era (1930-1945), the Redemocratisation Period (1946-1964), the Military Regime (1964-1985), and the last period which covers two governments, the New Republic (1985-1990) and the Collor Government (1990-1992).