CURRICULAR INTEGRATION IN HIGH SCHOOL

teachers’ perceptions and challenges of the new reform

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the challenges and potentialities associated with the implementation of the integrated curriculum in Integrated Upper Secondary Education (Ensino Médio Integrado – EMI), highlighting its relevance to students' comprehensive (omnilateral) education and to the articulation among work, science, technology, and culture. The study is derived from the first author's master's dissertation, conducted under the supervision of the second author within the Professional Master's Program in Professional and Technological Education (PROFEPT/IFPE). It aims to understand teachers' perceptions of curriculum integration and the impacts resulting from the New Upper Secondary Education Reform (Novo Ensino Médio – NEM), established by Law No. 13,415/2017. The research adopts a qualitative approach and employs methodological procedures including a literature review, the administration of a structured questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews with teachers from a state technical school in Pernambuco, Brazil, seeking to identify the practices, limitations, and possibilities associated with the educational process. The findings reveal recurrent challenges, such as the lack of specific continuing professional development, weaknesses in collaborative planning, insufficient time for study and pedagogical organization, and the predominance of instrumental approaches oriented toward labor market demands to the detriment of comprehensive (omnilateral) education. The study concludes that the effective implementation of an integrated curriculum requires consistent public policies, adequate structural and pedagogical conditions, and continuous professional development initiatives that foster interdisciplinary practices, thereby ensuring the right to learning and to comprehensive human development.