The National Program of Book and Teaching Material and the Development of Scientific Thinking: Geography in highlight

Abstract

The National Program for Book and Teaching Material (PNLD) has several approval criteria. Publishers produce books that meet these criteria and submit them for selection by the Ministry of Education (MEC). Approved works are presented in the Textbook Guide. With this guide in hand, teachers and coordinators of the country's state network choose the books they will adopt and await their distribution by the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE). This research investigated whether the evaluation criteria of PNLD 2018 allowed the construction of culture and scientific spirit in high school geography textbooks. To this end, the criteria published in the PNLD 2018 edict and the activities of one of the didactic works approved in this program were analyzed. To achieve this goal, we follow the qualitative approach of research and take as theoretical basis the conception of teaching of geography defended by Milton Santos (2006) and Helena Callai (1999, 2001, 2004). The results of the analysis of the data set generated in the investigation showed that, although the selected work develops scientific thinking, it was noted that the issue of promotion is more the teacher's investigative posture than the didactic material.