O exame de admissão ao ginásio: A Matemática no processo de seleção hierarquizada

Abstract

In this thesis we aim to describe and analyze how the mathematics teaching influenced to construct a process of hierarchy in the entrance exam of middle school (Ginásio). Take into account that the entrance exam to the middle school worked for decades as the only way of access it, and considering his power of selectivity and classification, we brought to our analysis the reflections and thoughts of the philosopher Michel Foucault about the relations that are established between power and knowledge in the disciplinary institution and how the exam is an effective instrument of selections, comparison and exclusion. According to the methodological procedures of Oral History, we stared from the testimonials of three voluntaries to the searching who experienced the Entrance Exam as students, and, together with the analysis fo the testimonials, we analyzed and investigated archives, specifically the mathematics tests in the CD-ROM organized by VALENTE (2001), from 1930 to 1969 and from the analysis we started to reflect how this hierarchy process becomes present in the middle school Entrance Examinations and how the Mathematics tests contributed to accentuate the classifications in this hierarchy process. The textualizations of the interviews carried out during the research are presented in the text as monologues, as we believe that this way the readers will be able to have greater engagement with the narrated stories. Through the speeches and files analyzed, it became possible to reflect on this process of hierarchization that appears in a subtle way in the reports of the interviewees and also in the Mathematics tests that present themselves as an effective mechanism for selecting and controlling access to the continuity of studies.