ABSTRACT
The development of critical social theories during Cold War years led to the emergence of critical thought in the field of education in Europe and North America, which excelled and influenced Brazilian left-wing intellectuals during the sixties and seventies. Prior to that time Brazilian leftwing intellectuals and educators had relied on Marxist analyses of society to undergird their opposition to the military dictatorship (1964-1985), as well as to produce educational theories and to understand social-educational phenomena. The relationship between capitalism and educational policies was debated and analyzed by left-wing authors according to the model of understanding as if schools were conceived to perpetuate the status quo. Some of the most influential texts were particularly based on works such as Bourdieu and Passeron, “The Reproduction”1 and Baudelot and Establet, The Capitalist School in France, as well as Bowles and Gintis, Schooling in Capitalistic America. Less influential, but still relevant is the critical theory [CT] related to the work of authors of The Frankfurt School [FS], who have made their presence felt on debates remarkably up through Habermas’s neo-Marxist thought.
