Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Recent curriculum policies for teaching of history and social sciences in basic education and initial teacher preparation

The text synthesizes a comparative documentary research of the purposes that guide curriculum aims for the teaching history and social sciences in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, since the late twentieth century and during the 21st century, showing that they have been contingent on government policies and reforms that respond to hegemonic views and disputes between disciplines more than to the purposes of citizens education in this century. The policy analysis for the initial preparation of teachers in these same disciplines in the three countries, concludes that it responds to recommendations from international organizations, which cut back the importance of preparation for teaching in these fields of knowledge. Finally, the relationships between the results of the previous two analyses identifies few meeting points. There is little research on the initial training of history teachers and social sciences that contributes not only to the initial preparation of teachers, but also to their teaching in basic education.