Historical-dialectical materialism in Education Policy research

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of the research on education policy which are based on the historical-dialectical materialism, aiming to identify the use of the method categories (praxis, totality, mediation, contradiction and historicity) and the Marxist theory categories (labor, surplus value, alienation, ideology, social classes and the State). Firstly, the background of the historical-dialectical materialism based on Marx and Lukács is presented, supported by the contribution of contemporary authors such as Tonet, Lessa, Netto, Chasin and Mészáros. Next, a survey of the thesis and dissertations presented between 1990 and 2010 in the Post-graduation programs in the Education area in Brazil is carried out, focusing on the studies presented between 2006 and 2010 which resorted to the Marxist theoretical background. From this survey, it was possible to map how often both categories the method and the Marxist work, highlighting the importance of the dialectical relationship between them.

Keywords

• Historical-dialectical materialism
• Education policy research
• Knowledge production