Resumo:
Research on curriculum has an ongoing path marked by numerous propositions, debates, and disputes surrounding educational and social projects aimed at shaping future generations of human beings and their conceptions on the natural and social world. In this context, this study aimed to develop historical-critical principles for the process of selecting curricular contents. This goal was based on the premise that the object defining the nature and specificity of the curriculum lies in the question of what to teach. Grounded in the theory of knowledge founded on historical-dialectical materialism, this theoretical study was developed through the following procedures: an exposition of the historical development of curriculum theory from the early twentieth century to the present; a discussion of the main foundations and categories of the historical-critical theory of curriculum; an investigation of the historical elements of the development of chemistry; and an analysis of the logical structure of chemistry in its epistemological aspects. From this investigative path, we structured six categories—three grounded in the historical dimension and three in the logical dimension of chemistry. As the main results, we formulated historical-critical principles intended to assist the process of selecting curricular contents in chemistry education, namely: Scientific controversies in historical development; Development of technique; Development of the mode of production: natural–artificial chemistry and the drive toward industrialization; The substance as the constituent of chemistry’s core, mediated by structural formulas and the categorization of classes of chemical compounds; The conscious transition among the molar, molecular, and electrical levels regarding chemistry contents and their conceptual approach; and The properties of matter and the transformations of materials at the molar, molecular, and electrical levels of chemical knowledge, and their dimensions of composition/structure, energy, and time as central parameters for understanding the manipulation of nature. The principles developed in this research are conceived from a dialectical perspective—that is, they do not present a hierarchy but rather establish causal nexuses between parts and the whole, relating to one another in a totalizing manner. Accordingly, it is expected that these principles may contribute to the production of didactic materials, the design of school curricula across different educational levels, and a more conscious and intentional selection of contents by teachers and researchers in the field of chemistry curriculum. To demonstrate an initial approximation to the proposed principles, the substance and the element oxygen were used as examples for applying the elements developed in this doctoral thesis.
