MARCAS HISTÓRICAS DA MATEMÁTICA MODERNA NO BRASIL

Abstract

The Modern Mathematics Movement, started in Brazil, especially between the 60's and 70's of the last century, has brought significant changes to the educational practices in the school. However, we do not know yet the length and reflexes of those changes in the Math teachers' pedagogical practices. The present article, focus on the historical aspects of this movement, and points out forms to its appropriation by the Brazilian scientific community as well as it tries to identify possible forms of introducing modern ideas in the everyday school practice. The article begins with the antecedents of the Modern Mathematics Movement, analyzing the actions triggered by the scientific community in favour of the dissemination of the movement that revolutionized the Math teaching, especially, the effective actions taken by the participants of the Math Teaching Congresses, held in Brazil, during the 50's. After that, it identifies, in the Math tests of the Admission Exam to the "Ginásio" (junior high school) applied in the state of São Paulo, hints to the alterations in the Math programs adopted by the schools at that time, which included Modern Math. Finally, it demonstrates forms of absorbance of renewing ideas in the school practices, by the report of the dilemmas faced in the classroom by a pro-active teacher of the 60's movement. By revealing such aspects of the penetration of the movement within the Brazilian school, the present study points out some implications and consequences of the mathematics experience of school agents, highlighting the importance and the need of further and profound cultural studies around this movement that used the hard and abstract simbology of Mathematics as a tool to the scientific formation of citizenship.