A fabricação da disciplina escolar Português

Abstract

This paper aims at discussing the emergence and rise of Portuguese as a school discipline responsible for formal teaching of language of the Brazilian national language in its education system. It seeks to gather ideas about the social construction of this school discipline and its legimacy by the prescriptive curriculum. The article also emphasizes discussions on how schools offer both space and time to students so that they could master school abilities and metadiscourses about written language. Based on studies of the history of school disciplines, we offer an interpretation of the emergence of Portuguese as a school subject in the context of an Enlightenment language policy of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, which involves aspects of two processes: grammaticalization and institutionalization in the school system of national languages as an essential project of national identity. We conclude the paper by discussing the construction of public programs, academic studies on mother tongues' teaching and public policies.