Curriculum differentiation in the education of youth and adults in Portugal and Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze conceptions of curriculum differentiation in programs of Professional Education for Youth and Adults in Portugal and Brazil. The starting point was the reference for the analysis of curriculum policy, identified by Pacheco (2003) as "equality/inequality" and "homogenizing/diversity", and of the proposed conceptual of the "Triangle of difference", proposed by Wieviorka (2000), and its three poles interlinked: the collective identity, the modern individual, the subject. Followed by a qualitative approach, we performed transverse content analysis (Bardin, 1979) of normative and institutional documents. The empirical results show that the curriculum differentiation has a long way to be followed, especially, the basic questions related to teachers; the “collective identity” is a starting point to discuss the differentiation; differences related to the "modern individual" and "subject", which are not considered by curriculum practices. We conclude that the programs are still configured as part of curriculum policies homogeneous and unequal.