ABSTRACT:
This study analyzes the educational programs' topic in a non-directive pedagogy context. The research's question is how to reconcile the ideal of service to the students' interests and needs and programs' imposition. The present work restricts this broad topic to mathematics teaching. The paper takes as a central issue the question: Which mathematics should we teach to meet the students' interests and needs in times of non-directive pedagogies? This work also analyzes Lourenço Filho's role in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s through the use of Cultural History tools, by analyzing official documentation, educational journals and school districts' reports. The investigation concludes that the Instituto de Educação do Rio de Janeiro becomes an actual laboratory for the preparation of a math teaching program - Programa Mínimo - based on experimental psychology, initiated by Lourenço Filho in São Paulo State's Education Board.
Keywords:
Programa Mínimo; Lourenço Filho; Alfredina Souza; Math curriculum; History of mathematics education