Disputes around assessments in early childhood education in Brazil

Abstract

The debate around standardized assessments became a global agenda imposed by multilateral organizations. These tests, in the neoliberal context, impose an impoverishment of the curriculum and also strong control over the teaching work. On the other hand, it also causes resistance from social movements. This paper addresses this process of disputes for hegemony in the context of early childhood education in Brazil within the last few years. This research analyses the protagonism of the Inter-Forum Movement of Early Childhood Education in Brazil (MIEIB) in the context of the Workers’ Party administrations (Lula and Dilma). During this period, the movement had an amicable relationship with the federal administrations, which opened discussions about different ways to evaluate educational quality, based on the discourse of the right to education. Currently, this democratic dialogue no longer exists and the relations between the movement and the federal administration has become antagonistic, as the Bolsonaro administration wishes extend tests to early childhood education.