Militarização da educação pública no Paraná: sentidos, práticas e contradições na experiência dos colégios cívico- militares (2020-2024)

Abstract

This thesis investigates the implementation of Civic-Military Schools (CMSs) in the state of Paraná between 2020 and 2024, seeking to understand their relationship to contemporary disputes surrounding Brazilian public education. Based on the hypothesis that school militarization is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a broader process of educational reorganization influenced by ultraconservative agendas, we analyze how this model aligns with the legacy of the School Without Party Movement, recent political transformations, and disputes over hegemony in the educational field. The methodology combined a documentary analysis of legislation, manuals, guidelines, digital news articles, and institutional materials produced by the National Civic-Military Schools Program and the Paraná Civic-Military Schools Program, with interviews involving ten teachers who worked in militarized schools in the western region of the state during the study period. The investigation demonstrated that militarization extends beyond the mere presence of military personnel in the school environment; it constitutes a process of reorganizing educational relations by prioritizing discipline, hierarchy, civic values, and behavioral control. The analyzed documents highlight the centrality of these values to the detriment of pedagogical autonomy, democratic management, and critical education. The interviews revealed tensions, resistance, and contradictions inherent in the teachers’ concrete experiences, calling into question the pedagogical effects attributed to the model. The thesis concludes that CMSs are part of a broader struggle over the meanings of public education, linking ultraconservatism to mechanisms of institutional control while simultaneously facing resistance and forms of contestation from various civil society subjects and organizations.