The arts in Brazilian public schools: Analysis of an art education experience in Mato Grosso State, Brazil

This article examines the relation between official policy on art education in Brazilian basic education and what is actually taught and done in public school teaching in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Making use of interpretative analysis, I directly observed art classes in schools selected in the state of Mato Grosso. I also analyzed the laws, guidelines, parameters, and other official documents related to art education in Brazilian primary and secondary schools and compared them to the observed practices in the selected schools. Specifically in Mato Grosso, there is a gap between the theoretical guidelines of these documents and what is taught and done in public schools. Conceptions of the discipline of art education in official documents are not in line with the practices of this discipline in the researched elementary schools, a discord that may contribute to art being misunderstood as a lesser discipline. Using the results of this research, I intend to seek effective ways to discuss the arts in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools and highlight their importance in school curricula. My objective is not only that these results benefit public schools by encouraging the expansion of concrete and effective public policies for the quality and improvement of primary and secondary school education and the training of arts teachers, but also that these results will assist researchers studying arts education by showing how to extend that study beyond the academic walls.