Abstract:
This research is linked to the research line Educational Policies, Management, and Pedagogical Practices and investigates the implications of the neoliberal educational model on the formation of the critical reader in the contemporary Brazilian context. The central problem that guides the study is: how have neoliberal educational policies impacted the formation of the critical reader in Brazilian public schools? The general objective of the research is to analyze to what extent the advancement of neoliberal rationality in educational policies undermines the formation of the critical reader. The specific objectives are: to identify the normative frameworks that sustain reading as a social and civic practice; to examine the contradictions between such guidelines and the pedagogical practices conditioned by external evaluations; and to identify pedagogical experiences of resistance that promote the formation of an emancipated critical reader. Grounded in the theoretical contributions of Paulo Freire (2005), Henry Giroux (2003), Michael Apple (2001), and Dardot and Laval (2016), the investigation adopts a qualitative approach, with documentary analysis and content analysis applied to educational policies, institutional programs, and reading projects. The study demonstrates that, although official discourses recognize reading as a social practice essential to citizenship, the implementation of educational policies has been captured by a logic of performativity and control, weakening teacher autonomy, emptying pedagogical space, and subjecting reading to technicist functions. Despite this scenario, the research identifies practices of resistance, both within schools and in community projects, that restore the formation of the critical reader as an instrument of reflection, analysis, and social transformation. It concludes that the formation of the critical reader constitutes not only a pedagogical practice but also a political strategy fundamental to confronting the asymmetries produced by neoliberalism in education, requiring structural investments in teacher training, the strengthening of collaborative practices, and the reorientation of public educational policies.