The Portuguese Language Teaching and the Large-Scale Assessment Prova Brasil: some thoughts about a partnership between university and basic education

Abstract

This paper, that focused on a set of actions carried out by its authors – professors of a state and public university in Paraíba state, in a partnership with the Education Office from a town located in region close to the campus where those professors work, was guided for two questions: I) What partnership have high education and basic education established concerning the large-scale assessment known as Prova Brasil?; and II) What reflections on Portuguese language teaching and on teacher education have this partnership led to? The theoretical framework included studies that focused on the historical development of the Portuguese language teaching in basic education (SOARES, 2002; PIETRI, 2003; BUNZEN, 2011). Based on these studies, we highlighted the relation between the Prova Brasil and the discourse for changing in the Portuguese language teaching, which emerged in the 1970s. The analyses showed the importance of the teaching, research and extension actions carried out by the higher education system in reducing the impacts of the neoliberal policy underlying the large-scale assessment Prova Brasil on the Portuguese language teaching and on teacher education.

Keywords

• large-scale assessment prova brasil
• university
• basic education