Peer-reviewed article
Curricular Policies for Early Childhood Education
Daniela Neto Oliveira Peixer, Roseli Nazário ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how international organizations influence early childhood education curriculum policies in Brazil and Portugal. It analyzes the national curriculum frameworks of both countries—Brazil's BNCC and Portugal's OCEPE—to understand how global guidelines are adapted locally. The research finds that while both countries follow similar patterns, they differ in their policy autonomy, and both show increasing alignment with international guidelines emphasizing skills development and market demands. The study highlights tensions between global standardization pressures and the need for culturally situated educational approaches.
Key points
- Brazil and Portugal have converging historical trajectories in early childhood education but differ in their degree of autonomy in policy elaboration
- Growing articulation between curriculum policies and international guidelines is observed in both countries
- International guidelines emphasize skills development, curriculum standardization, and alignment with global market demands
- The BNCC (Brazil's national framework) contains internal contradictions
- Early childhood education remains fragmented in implementation, despite policy frameworks
Limitations
This is a documentary and bibliographic analysis without empirical data on implementation, classroom practice, or actual child outcomes. The study describes policy documents and their international influences but does not assess how these curricula affect children's learning or well-being.
Abstract
This study analyzes the influence of international organizations on Early Childhood Education curriculum policies in Brazil and Portugal, investigating how global guidelines are interpreted and recontextualized in the construction of national curricula. The research adopts a qualitative approach, bibliographic in nature and articulated with documentary analysis of the national curriculum policies of both countries — the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) and the Curricular Guidelines for Preschool Education (OCEPE) — grounded in Ball's Policy Cycle (2011, 2022), and attentive to the historical, political, and economic specificities of each context. The results reveal that, although they share converging historical trajectories, Brazil and Portugal differ in their degree of autonomy in the elaboration of educational policies. A growing articulation between curriculum policies and international guidelines is observed, with emphasis on skills development, curriculum standardization, and alignment with global market demands. The study contributes to the debate on educational policy formulation by highlighting the contradictions of the BNCC, the persistent fragmentation of Early Childhood Education, and the need to strengthen democratic and culturally situated perspectives capable of resisting the homogenizing pressures of global capitalism.