Research in Education in Brazil – continuities and changes. A model case: literacy research

Abstract

Based on a study about theories related to literacy in Brazil, the continuities and changes in research in education in the country from the second half of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twentieth century are identified. Two analytical perspectives are indicated. The external, which emphasizes research policies and the role of Graduate courses, and the internal, which emphasizes the content of the studies. The article focuses on the second factor and characterizes it as an analysis of paradigms in which the studies are located. These paradigms are defined by the nature of the relationship of the researcher to the object of the study – the positivist or interpretative epistemological framework and the focus on the object – a focus on the individual, social or cultural facet. The paper concludes that the changes in the paradigms do not take place by substitution, because there is a co-existence of the paradigms over time. It also found continuities, although with a predominance of a certain paradigm in each historic moment. In relation to the focus, the paper concludes that there is an evident change over the decades from an individual to the social and finally to the cultural facet.