Entrepreneurship Education as Contested Curriculum: Teacher Mediation in Entrepreneurial Upper-Secondary Pathways in Brazilian Public Schools

Sany da Silva Motta; Leandro Brettas Torturella; Ricardo César da Silva Guabiroba

doi:10.1590/SciELOPreprints.16499

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Sany da Silva Motta Fluminense Federal University https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3729-6046
- Conceptualization
- Data Curation
- Formal Analysis
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Project Administration
- Resources
- Writing – Original Draft Preparation
- Writing – Review & Editing
Leandro Brettas Torturella Fluminense Federal University https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6524-9754
- Conceptualization
- Data Curation
- Formal Analysis
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Writing – Original Draft Preparation
Ricardo César da Silva Guabiroba Fluminense Federal University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4108-846X
- Formal Analysis
- Project Administration
- Supervision
- Validation
- Writing – Review & Editing

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.16499

Keywords:

curriculum reform, entrepreneurship education, teacher agency, critical pedagogy, public schools, upper-secondary education

Abstract

This article addresses a central curriculum problem in contemporary upper-secondary reform: how entrepreneurship education becomes meaningful, contested and pedagogically enactable in public-school contexts marked by unequal institutional conditions. Focusing on Brazilian public upper-secondary reform, the study analyses how entrepreneurship education is curricularised and negotiated between policy discourse, teacher mediation and school conditions. The article challenges neutral and instrumental readings of entrepreneurship education by conceptualising it as a disputed curriculum object whose meaning depends on the conditions under which it is interpreted, mediated and assessed. The research combines documentary analysis of national and state curriculum materials with qualitative responses from 14 Rio de Janeiro public-school teachers directly involved in entrepreneurship-oriented upper-secondary pathways, 71.5% of whom had more than a decade of teaching experience. Drawing on Alain Fayolle’s design-oriented approach to entrepreneurship education and Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, the article develops the concept of the critical enactability gap: the distance between curriculum discourse that promises innovation, student agency and social relevance, and the pedagogical, institutional and assessment conditions required to enact these promises critically. The findings identify four tensions: partial curricular guidance without robust enactment mechanisms; territorial relevance without systematic contextualisation; active learning without assessment repertoires for complex competencies; and the coexistence of public-value and market-oriented meanings of entrepreneurship. The article contributes to curriculum studies by showing that entrepreneurship education becomes educationally meaningful only when pedagogical design, critical purpose, teacher agency and assessment conditions are institutionally aligned.

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Author Biographies

Sany da Silva Motta, Fluminense Federal University

Graduated in Letters from Salgado de Oliveira University (2005). Has experience in the field of Letters, with an emphasis on Portuguese Language. She holds a specialization in Teacher Training in Entrepreneurship and Management for High School from the Federal Fluminense University (2022) and in Languages and their Technologies from the Federal University of Piauí. She is a master's student in Administration at the Federal Fluminense University, developing research on Educational Entrepreneurship as a Strategy for Reducing Food Waste in Rio de Janeiro State Schools, focusing on promoting education for entrepreneurship as an instrument of social transformation and sustainable development, maximizing benefits for students, the school community, and society in general. She is a teacher in the Rio de Janeiro state public school system, working in high school and experienced in developing pedagogical practices distinct from education for entrepreneurship. Her master's student in Administration with an emphasis on entrepreneurship focuses her research on the articulation between education, sustainability, and innovation in the school context. This researcher conducts applied research on the use of entrepreneurship education as a strategy to address food waste in state schools in Rio de Janeiro, integrating qualitative approaches and methods such as Design Science Research (DSR) and interpretive phenomenology. Within this research, they propose and develop the "Smart School Lunch" pedagogical-technological artist project, aimed at mediating educational practices and promoting student engagement in socio-environmental issues. They have ongoing scientific production, with articles modified and submitted to national and international congresses and journals, addressing topics such as entrepreneurship education, school sustainability, pedagogical innovation, and public policies on school food. They participate in academic events, contributing to the debate on entrepreneurial training in public educational contexts. Their research interests focus on entrepreneurship education, educational innovation, sustainability, educational public policies, and qualitative methodologies applied to administration.

Leandro Brettas Torturella, Fluminense Federal University

Habilidades e Competências:
Planejamento e execução de aulas de Artes Visuais, adaptadas a diferentes faixas etárias e níveis de habilidade.
Conhecimento aprofundado em técnicas de desenho, pintura, escultura e outras formas de expressão artística.
Experiência em organizar exposições, feiras de arte e eventos culturais.
Habilidades em utilizar ferramentas digitais para o ensino de arte, promovendo a integração entre arte tradicional e tecnologia.

Projetos e Realizações:
Organização de mostras de arte escolares e comunitárias.
Participação em workshops e seminários sobre educação artística e novas metodologias de ensino.
Implementação de projetos interdisciplinares que integram as artes visuais com outras áreas do conhecimento.

Ricardo César da Silva Guabiroba, Fluminense Federal University

Graduado em Engenharia de Produção pela Universidade Federal Fluminense. Mestre e Doutor em Engenharia de Transportes pelo Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ). Pós-doutor em Ciências Ambientais pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Atua como professor adjunto e pesquisador da Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) em área multidisciplinar envolvendo conceitos da área de Engenharia de Transportes e de Produção, Administração de empresas e Administração Pública com enfoque principal para solução de problemas e tomada de decisão na área de Gestão Ambiental e Sustentabilidade. A principal linha de pesquisa aborda os impactos da atividade de transporte de resíduos sólidos e estruturação de cadeias de suprimento de unidades de reciclagem com base nos aspectos de sustentabilidade. No momento, atua como professor do curso de graduação em Engenharia de Agronegócios (UFF). Atua ainda como membro do corpo docente do curso de mestrado profissional em Administração da UFF e como editor associado da Revista Ambiente Sociedade.