Curriculum changes at vocational high schools in São Paulo state: from ‘social integration’ to ‘engagement for transformation’

Abstract

This article reviews the curriculum of Vocational High
Schools (known then as ‘Ginásios Vocacionais’) in São Paulo
State, an experimental educational project developed between
1961 and 1970. We consider the proposition that the legal and
theoretical frameworks that guided the curriculum of these
schools underwent major changes during their nine years of
existence, due to the construction and expansion of the
experience, as well as the internal differences that existed
within the staff of the Vocational Education Service (SEV),
the office that administered the schools. These differences are
also associated with the historical context of the 1960s and
reveal the singularity of the educational proposal of
Vocational High Schools in relation to other curriculum
changes that occurred during that period.