Study on the curricular policy for the first grades of elementary school implemented in the State of São Paulo in the eighties and nineties. It examines the prescribed curriculum by comparing it to the practical contexts of curricular development. The research reveals that the curricular policy of that period was very much connected with academic production on education. It further emphasizes continuity in the policy of producting curricular orientation materials in the last 20 years, in order to advertise and make hegemonic an innovative pedagogical thought. It was also verified that these materials circulated in many different ways within the education system and were selectively appropriated by the teachers who particularly adopted the practical indications.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS; TEACHING QUALITY; SÃO PAULO; CURRICULUM