Neoliberalismo e educação: reforma empresarial e a perda da autonomia do professor

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the implications of neoliberalism for education and the erosion of educators' professional autonomy, seeking to understand how processes that attempt to subordinate schools to a market-oriented logic are advancing and directly affecting educators' autonomy. This is a qualitative bibliographic study based on the works of authors such as Paro (1993, 2013, 2014), Pelegrini and Pereira (2022), Gentili (2017), Laval (2019), and Freitas (2014, 2016), among others. The study examines the advancement of neoliberal policies and their development within the Brazilian educational context. The findings indicate that the targets established through large-scale standardized assessments have directly influenced curricular content, thereby undermining educators' autonomy. This loss of autonomy has intensified as private-sector initiatives and neoliberal policies increasingly shape schools in an effort to establish mechanisms oriented toward profits. It is evident that educators are progressively losing control over their own professional practice, while experiencing growing levels of stress and illnesses in response to pressures from school management, parents, and students. Class struggle remains particularly significant within the neoliberal context, and its urgency is undeniable, as what is ultimately at stake is workers' dignity and the defense of a free, democratic, secular, universal, and accessible public education