Gestão educacional e ensino público no Brasil como objeto de disputa da extrema direita: uma incursão pela produção acadêmica brasileira sobre a militarização das escolas públicas (2016-2022)

Abstract

This research investigates how Brazilian academic production published between 2016 and 2022 has addressed the advance of conservative movements in the governance of public schools. It is guided by the following research question: how, and from which analytical perspectives, has Brazilian scholarly production (2016–2022) problematized the expansion of conservatism in the management of public education? The specific objectives of the research were to identify theses and dissertations on educational management and public education available in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, with emphasis on the categories of neoconservatism, conservatism, fascism, neo-fascism, the School Without Party movement, homeschooling, and school militarization; to map and analyze the principal thematic trends emerging from this body of work; and to examine the research problems and objects associated with democratic governance in Brazilian public education. Methodologically, the investigation adopted a qualitative bibliographic approach, drawing on master’s theses and doctoral dissertations retrieved from the BDTD as its primary sources. The corpus was examined through Bardin’s (1977) Content Analysis, following the stages of pre-analysis, material exploration, and data treatment through inference and interpretation. Four master’s dissertations addressing school management in the context of the militarization of public schools were identified and analyzed. The analysis reveals a convergent critical assessment of the militarized model of school governance, emphasizing its contribution to the exclusion of socially vulnerable students, the fragmentation of school management, and the erosion of democratic governance. The literature on the subject is broadly divided between historical analyses of the militarization process and case studies examining its practical implications. The analysis indicates that, although this body of scholarship provides valuable insights into the advance of conservatism in public school governance through school militarization, it leaves important gaps concerning other conservative strategies, particularly the School Without Party Program and homeschooling.