A historical overview of geometry teaching in Brazil: 1500 to the present day

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical study on the historical trajectory of geometry teaching in Brazil, since the arrival of the Portuguese in the country in 1500, until the first decades of the 2000s. Such an object of study established itself based on the following questions: “How was and has been provided the geometry teaching in Brazil? What influences suffered these teaching in the different moments of our country history and now?” The analysis showed that: it is virtually impossible to dissociate the teaching of math, and any of its branches, from the political and economic activities of the states, both Brazil and the rest of the world; the public policies are the ones that trace, generally, which are the premises that must guide the geometry and math teaching, even indirectly; the curricular changes in Brazil, in general, occur or became effective through governmental actions; the success of the curricular changes proposals depends directly on the education of the teachers that minister the discipline; in general, lacks to the teachers the necessary formation to accomplish the implementation of the curriculum changes, especially those related to geometry, what leads, in turn, to the low performance of Brazilian students in geometry the education of the math teacher regarding geometry in the different evaluations to which they are submitted.