A prova do Saeb e o ensino de língua portuguesa na perspectiva de professores da rede pública estadual de Goiás

Abstract

This study is part of the research line Culture, School, and Training of the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) at the Goiás State University (UEG), University Unit of Inhumas. Entitled The Saeb assessment and the teaching of the Portuguese language from the perspective of the teachers, this research proposed as a general objective to know the perceptions of the Portuguese Language (PL) teachers who teach in ninth-grade classes at schools that belong to the State Secretariat of Education of Goiás (Seduc GO) on the possible influences of the evaluation of the Assessment of Primary Education System (Saeb) on their work. We also chose the following as specific objectives: to understand the implementation of Saeb as a response to a neoliberal tendency to control primary education and make teachers accountable; to identify possible changes in the textbooks, in the methodology, and the planning of the PL teacher of ninth-grade classes when the Saeb assessment is applied; to understand how the public policies of Seduc GO regulate and interfere in the educational practices of teachers from the state network in Saeb assessment years; to identify how teachers perceive the effects of the Saeb assessment in their practice; to recognize, in the teachers' discourse, adherence or resistance to the concept of quality defended by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) in its evaluation policy; to assess whether the teaching of PL is detached from the reality of the school units to meet external demand. These objectives sought to contribute to answering the following research question: in the perception of teachers who teach PL in ninth-grade classes, what is the relationship between the Saeb assessment and their teaching practice? As for methodological procedures, we carried out this investigation based on a qualitative approach and adopted dialectical historical materialism as a research method. Initially, we used bibliographical research to understand how neoliberalism has modified educational institutions and the work of teachers, as well as the influences of neoliberalism on the State and educational public policies. We also sought to verify how Saeb was formulated and reformulated based on neoliberal values and, along with other public policies, acts at the service of a managerial State. We also carried out a document analysis of MEC ordinance n. 10/2021 was also carried out, which brings the new guidelines for the Saeb assessment, to verify how its neoliberal contours were accentuated. Then, we carried out an empirical research with the application of a questionnaire with closed and open questions to a sample of ten teachers from the state education network of Goiás. The following were adopted as fundamental authors and works for the development of the research: Afonso (2000); Silva (2005); Bakhtin (2011); Rabbit (2012); Dardot and Laval (2016); Dourado, Oliveira, and Santos (2007); Freitas et al. (2014); Freitas (2018); Laval (2019); Voloshinov (2018). This study showed that the state of Goiás occupies prominent positions in the national rankings of performance in the Saeb assessments, leading Seduc GO to develop strategies so that these positions are maintained. The research also demonstrated that the centrality of external evaluations in the pedagogical process verified in Goiás makes the education offered instrumental, and, in order not to be held responsible for the eventual unfavorable result in the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB), we observed that the sample teachers of this study recognize that they modify their planning to prepare students for the Saeb assessment. The teachers' utterances were analyzed with the help of Bakhtinian concepts. We concluded that there are contradictions in the field regarding the position of the participating teachers concerning the Saeb quality concept. Although they demonstrate that they adapt their work to improve their students’ performances, many teachers do not believe there has been an improvement in the teaching of PL since the implementation of Saeb.