Empresa pedagógica como componente curricular no ensino médio: uma lógica empresarial na educação paraibana?

Abstract

The research analyzes the guide of the discipline Empresa Pedagógica (EP), a curricular component of Upper Secondary and Technical Education in the state school system of Paraíba. It refers to the document titled “Empresa Pedagógica: basic training for work”, implemented in the Escolas Cidadãs Integrais and Escolas Cidadãs Técnicas of Paraíba. The aim of the research was to understand the conceptions of youth education that guide the Empresa Pedagógica component and its implications for the constitution of integral education in Upper Secondary School. The analysis uses theoretical frameworks from Christian Laval, Michael Apple, and Luiz Carlos de Freitas to discuss the expansion of neoliberal and entrepreneurial rationality in the Paraíba curriculum, situating EP within the context of educational reforms inspired by competency-based pedagogy. The research systematizes a state of knowledge that highlights the scarcity of studies on the component, but identifies works that point to the fragmentation of education, the centrality of the entrepreneur figure, and the prioritization of competencies aligned with the logic of employability, to the detriment of historical, political, and cultural dimensions. The results and discussion show that EP constitutes a set of policies that reorganize Upper Secondary Education to meet market demands and reinforce training based on human capital theory. By emphasizing entrepreneurial practices and management models, the discipline shifts the notion of integral education and redefines the future expectations of young people in Paraíba by directing them toward entrepreneurship.