Education in social change: central place, secondary place and nowhere

Abstract

This article presents some examples to support the hipothesis which claims that there seems to exist a discrepance between the general meaning attributed to education by sociological approachs and those adopted by public authorities and school organization professionals. Those authorities and professionals and the current notions in public opinion are considerably coincident: indeed, they localize education in a central place as social change’s factor, sometimes as a exclusive factor. Our argument has elaborated by focus a research about educational change in Brazil, supported by Fapesp in 2004-2005. That research reported the educational reform characteristics from 1990 to 2000 and compared them with circumscribed initiatives included within the expression educational innovation.