O ENEM e a Geografia escolar: uma análise do Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio como regulação curricular e produção de sentidos à disciplina de Geografia (1998-2023)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the National High School Exam (ENEM), from 1998 to 2023, as a mechanism of curricular regulation and as an instance of meaning-making for the subject of Geography in Brazilian secondary education. Understood as a state technology and an educational policy of national scope, ENEM is analyzed as an assessed curriculum that, by selecting, hierarchizing, and legitimizing content, directly influences the knowledge considered socially valid within schools. Adopting a qualitative and quantitative-interpretative approach, the research employs document analysis, bibliographic review, and an extensive longitudinal mapping of Geography items in ENEM, enabling the identification of continuities, ruptures, and transformations in the content demanded. Based on a theoretical framework anchored in the Sociology of Curriculum and the History of School Subjects—particularly drawing on the contributions of Basil Bernstein, Michael Apple, José Gimeno Sacristán, Michael Young, André Chervel, and Ivor Goodson—the argument is made that the exam functions as a regulatory device, shaped by ideological, political, and epistemological disputes. The study shows that, while in its initial versions ENEM diluted specific disciplinary content in favor of generic competencies, from 2009 onwards, with the introduction of the Reference Framework and Knowledge Objects, there was a movement towards the revalorization of disciplinary knowledge in Geography, albeit not without contention. The analyses reveal a growing theoretical deepening of the items, greater presence of reference authors, and a valorization of critical themes. Thus, the research contributes to the debate on curriculum, assessment, and the meanings attributed to Geography taught in schools, affirming the importance of defending disciplinary content as a producer of powerful knowledge