THE DEBATE ABOUT CURRICULUM POLICY AND THE MEANING OF SUPERVISED INTERNSHIPS (1996-2006): AN ANALYSIS BASED ON DISCOURSE THEORY

ABSTRACT: This article describes the results of a research study about Brazil’s debate on curriculum and the meaning of supervised internships (1996-2006), considering the concepts of demands, articulations, and hegemony. We have worked with Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory arguing that such a debate represents a discursive articulation field. We formulated questions like “Which demands are hegemonized in curriculum policies?” and “How the meanings of supervised internships are built through this debate?” The field of study is the National Association for Education Professionals Training (ANFOPE) and the Ministry of Education/National Council of Education (MEC/CNE). We created a method of analysis based on discourse theory in order to examine the aforementioned debate through the perspective of questioning/deconstructing discourses to reveal how hegemony operates. We found that the meanings of supervised internship result from articulatory practices between different demands produced during it, under the influence of conflictual debate surrounding knowledge, training models and the curriculum.