After the Brazilian military dictatorship, the social and political pressures exerted by popular movements challenged the most progressive groups of society to propose projects to democratize the country. In the area of education, the political debates concerning guidelines to organize school opposed two major conceptions: the notion of "ideological State apparatus", defended by Louis Althusser, and the idea that school is a "hegemonic 'private' apparatus", based on Antonio Gramsci's reflection. This paper explores the confrontation between both notions of schooling and the problems of assimilating Gramscian thoughts in the field of education, whose effects still persist.
Ideological State apparatus; Hegemonic 'private' apparatus; Public school; Unitary school; Gramsci