Perspectives from the World Bank for teacher education in Brazil: a critical analysis

Abstract

This article aims to analyze part of the document "Achieving world-class education in Brazil: Next Steps," produced by the World Bank in 2010 to guide the setting of priorities in the Brazilian educational policy. This is a clipping from a literature that analyzes the guidelines proposed by the World Bank for education in developing countries and how these guidelines are directly affecting the educational policy in Brazil. In undertaking the study of this particular document, we focus on the actions proposed by the bank that should be adopted for the improvement of education in order to increase the economic competitiveness of Brazil, especially those that relate to the role assigned to the teacher in this process. Our analyzes reveal that the proposed guidelines by the bank consolidate the initial and continuing training programs strictly technical, without considering the already precarious work environments for teachers in public schools, dispensing the necessary theoretical and pedagogical knowledge and instituting a design for teacher education based only on technical training.