Based on the Law of Guidelines and Bases for Education Nº 5.692, August 11, 1971 and Evaluation 853/1971, this article presents a historical search-documentary developed in the Graduate Education Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It analyses the pedagogical ideas developed through the sixties, under the influence of New School educators and their contribution to the fundaments of the Education Reform that included the discipline in the curriculum of our primary and secondary schools. Deriving from a new historiographical perspective made possible by detachment, this survey found that the introduction of Social Studies in elementary school teaching corresponded to a branch of the legislation under the Federal Education Council, in force since 1966. The composition of the Board members in the sixties, including major names of the New School in Brazil, reinforces the idea that Social Studies as part of the curriculum was based on a predominantly pedagogical issue.
Curriculum; School Subjects; New School; Social Studies
