Between curricular changes and expectations for the future: teachers and students in the New High School system at a military school

Abstract

This article analyzes how teachers and students of a military school in the city of Pelotas (RS) are experiencing the implementation of the New High School system. The research methodology is qualitative-quantitative and in based on interviews with teachers, discussion group with students, and survey application. From the collection and analysis of the data, it was found that both teachers and students express dissatisfaction with the reform, and the vertical form of its implementation, the workload, and the limitation of relevant content for the National High School Exam (ENEM) stand out in the testimonies. The research is theoretically anchored in Bourdieu, Lahire, and Dubar, revealing that the discourse of student protagonism and curricular flexibility is concretized in a process of precariousness of school trajectories, either in curricular access or in expectations regarding professional and student life. The lack of listening to school communities is understood as an expression of a reform without dialogue, which destabilizes professional identities and reinforces educational inequalities in militarized contexts.

Keywords
new high school; military schools; teaching activity; students

Resumo

O artigo analisa como docentes e discentes de uma escola militar do município de Pelotas (RS) estão vivenciando a implementação do Novo Ensino Médio (NEM). A metodologia da pesquisa é quali-quantitativa e tem aporte em entrevistas com professores, grupo de discussão com estudantes e aplicação de survey. A partir da captação e análise dos dados, constata-se que tanto docentes quanto discentes manifestam insatisfação com a reforma, e destaca-se nos depoimentos a forma verticalizada de sua implantação, a sobrecarga de trabalho e a limitação de conteúdos relevantes para o Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (Enem). A pesquisa ancora-se teoricamente em Bourdieu, Lahire e Dubar, revelando que o discurso de protagonismo estudantil e flexibilização curricular se concretiza em um processo de precarização das trajetórias escolares, seja de acesso curricular, seja nas expectativas quanto à vida profissional e estudantil. A ausência de escuta às comunidades escolares é compreendida como expressão de uma reforma sem diálogo, que desestabiliza identidades profissionais e reforça desigualdades educacionais em contextos militarizados.

Palavras-chave
novo ensino médio; escolas militares; atividade docente; discentes

Introduction

In this article, we analyze how students and teachers of a military school in Pelotas (RS) understand the changes occurring in the New High School (Novo Ensino Médio – NEM). Since its implementation, considering how it was approved from Law no. 13,415/2017, NEM has been widely analyzed and criticized by experts in the educational field, often being interpreted as a deepening of the neoliberal logic in education, especially for not effectively considering the participation of political actors who act and work in this field (Costa & Silva, 2019). Moreover, something that is being questioned concerns the real possibility of freedom of choice of the itineraries proposed by the reform, inserted in an ideological discourse that does not meet the educational interests of the school community (Fávero et al., 2023). Many studies address the theme from documentary review, collaborating for a conceptual analysis of the issue.

Thus, although there is a production considered relevant on the impacts of NEM, many studies still focus on documentary analyses or on schools in the regular network, leaving gaps on how the militarization of education influences the experience and the understanding of reforms by school actors. By articulating the debate on NEM with the specificity of the military school (specifically the case of the state network in this study), our proposal is to expand the analytical scope on educational inequalities and forms of symbolic control present in military school contexts.

Regarding theoretical framework, Bourdieu (2011, 2014) helps understanding how the choices in the “trails” tend to reinforce mechanisms of symbolic domination and school exclusion when disregarding their social trajectories. Lahire (2004) brings the perspective of analysis by highlighting the plurality of dispositions in individuals, which allows us to see how students experience tensions between their school insertion, their family aspirations, and the institutional requirements of NEM. Dubar (2020), when addressing professional identities under construction, helps in understanding the feeling of displacement and insecurity of students before their training trails.

Considering these analytical lenses, we guide our analysis in a perspective that seeks to understand the orientations of subjects from their entry into the military school as a social space that contains at least two fields in hierarchical complementarity. In the case of the military school, it has been set up throughout history in a logic of concertation of military field, with capital constituting militarism (hierarchy, discipline, organization, preparation, and security) and the cultural capital of civilians (curricular organization and specialized knowledge directed to disciplinary training – in the educational-professional sense), with complementarity, but command of one over the other. When the metafield State intervenes with the public policy of NEM, it destabilizes the prior concertation, since it imposes a new curriculum with the reduction of the required and evaluated disciplines. Thus, the organization is destabilized, as well as the confidence in the teaching and military legitimacy¹.

According to Flick (2023), in a sociological investigation of qualitative-quantitative methodology, such combination can allow the understanding of both statistical patterns related to variables such as school performance, discipline, and socioeconomic profile of students (quantitative dimension) and the subjective meanings attributed by the subjects to the norms, hierarchies, and experiences in the daily life of the institution (qualitative dimension). Thus, in this article, the methodology was developed from: a qualitative analysis, by a discussion group conducted with five students; interviews with twelve teachers² (of a total of nineteen), both conducted in 2023; and a survey that collected data with 177 students (81% of total students), conducted in 2024.

The first part of the article is composed of the presentation of the general and more specific context of the military school in which the research was carried out, and the second part analyzes studies that also addressed the theme in military schools. Then, the results of quantitative research regarding the understanding of teachers and students about NEM are presented. After this stage, the results of the discussion group, interviews, and survey between students and teachers will be discussed.

NEM and military schools: from research reality to studies

Before addressing the relationship between NEM and military schools, one must understand that this educational universe in Brazil is quite diverse. There are, on the one hand, the federal military colleges linked to the Ministry of Defense, which are part of the Brazilian Military School System (SCMB), under the responsibility of the Army. On the other, there are the state military schools, supported by the Military Police and Fire Departments, which follow their own guidelines in each state.

At the national level, related to the federal network, the first Military School in Brazil was founded in Rio de Janeiro (CMRJ), in 1889. Its creation was justified so that it had an assistance purpose³, but fulfilled a preparatory role, at least until the beginning of the 21st century. Currently, there are fourteen military schools in Brazil, in twelve states of the country (Freire, 2022).

The expansion of the SCMB occurred with the justification of expanding the “quality of teaching” and the ability of schools to select the “best ones” from processes, tests, etc. Thus, throughout the 20th century, the identity of excellence of the military schools is established, founded on dedication and effort, between being assistance for military dependents and being preparatory for those who stay until the end of the courses. Historically and structurally in our society, the societal hierarchy between military and civilians has been present, with an understanding of qualification and organizational capacity due to military capital. Recently, in 2024, a new Regulation of Military Schools (R-69) was published⁴, and, for the first time in 119 years, the filter of intellectual selection for military dependents ceased to exist (Exército Brasileiro, 2008).

In Rio Grande do Sul, this scenario has its particularity, as there are two distinct networks of militarized education: the Federal Army schools and the Tiradentes Military Brigade schools. The school in which the research was carried out, located in Pelotas, belongs to the latter network. Such a distinction is important because, although both networks share similar values, such as hierarchy and a sense of duty, their conditions of management, financing, and insertion in educational policies are very different.

While Army colleges have pedagogical autonomy and receive resources from the Ministry of Defense, Tiradentes colleges are subject to the same guidelines and policies as the state network, including in the NEM implementation process. It is in this frontier space, between the military structure and public education policies, that the experiences reported and analyzed in this research are inscribed.

The Tiradentes Military Brigade schools of Rio Grande do Sul were created in 1970, in Porto Alegre. This model expanded in the following decades and currently has eight units in the state, characterized by strong discipline, hierarchy, and high academic performance. The units of the Tiradentes schools work full-time, with traditional classes and extracurricular activities in the reverse shift. The school in which the research was carried out, located in Pelotas, was created in 2008 and inaugurated in 2011, being administered by the Military Brigade and recognized as a public school of reference. Unlike the Federal Army schools, the Tiradentes schools are hybrid state institutions, with dual pedagogical and administrative subordination. In the case of Pelotas, this structure produces a field of specific tensions, since the New High School was implemented under the guidelines of the state network, but mediated by a military hierarchical chain. Thus, this research reveals how the reform, thought under the sign of flexibility and protagonism, is reinterpreted within an institution that operates under the logic of command and discipline⁵.

In Pelotas, it is relevant to understand the implementation of NEM in a militarized context, as it brings together three structural dimensions that are intertwined: (i) it is a state public school, linked to the Rio Grande do Sul Secretariat of Education, which began to adopt NEM between 2022 and 2023; (ii) at the same time, it is an institution with military disciplinary management, in which the process of implementing educational policies is conducted by a hierarchical chain of command, without formal spaces for collective deliberation; (iii) the idea of excellence and selectivity that characterizes the search for the school, due to the high pass rate in entrance exams, which intensifies the expectations of students and families regarding the preparation for the National High School Exam (ENEM) and subsequent entry into higher education.

After the proper contextualization of the schools and the institution in which the research was carried out, we will address the studies that deal with the relationship between military schools and NEM. Santos (2021) conducted a qualitative research on the reform of high school in a military school of Minas Gerais, interviewing eight managers, six teachers, and twelve students. As results, positive aspects were observed regarding the understanding of improvement in the academic preparation aimed at taking ENEM and the ease of implementation of reforms due to the military structure. As negative points, the lack of explanations and difficulties in the introduction of training trails, lack of participation of teachers and students in the implementation of changes, and an overload of work and new educational demands were pointed out.

Silva et al. (2024), in an action research carried out at the school under analysis, write about the challenges and possibilities that arise with the implementation of NEM, especially the need to seek pedagogical innovations that enable multidisciplinarity, and the object of the article was the educommunicative practice from the production of a podcast. In the article, by the narrated practice, the authors argue that the podcast enabled greater interaction between students and teachers, facilitating learning and improving communication in the school environment from the appropriation of the tools used in the action research. Finally, the text points to the need for teachers to appropriate new technologies and didactics, indicating this is a responsibility of these “new professionals” (Silva et al., 2024, p. 11).

Oliveira and Barbosa (2024) made a comparative qualitative analysis between the forms of execution of the high school reform of the federal, state, and private education networks in Minas Gerais, finding inequalities in the models that favor students of the private and federal networks, because they allow greater freedom of choice for students regarding trails, in addition to the non-reduction of the contents necessary for ENEM, for example. The authors point out the military school of the federal network (managed by the Army) and the state network (managed by the Military Police) as members of the network of schools that executes NEM, but exclude them from their analysis because they consider that they “have particularities that do not make up the scope of interest of the investigation that originated this article” (Oliveira, Barbosa, 2024, p. 225).

In the study by Figueiredo Junior (2024), an analysis was made on how Geography is addressed in a military school of Mato Grosso since the changes of NEM. The author concludes that the reform impacted and significantly modified the school curriculum and criticizes the way Geography is applied in this school, considering that its critical potential is modified for a perspective that works on practical skills, a result, according to the author, of the military and hierarchical model.

That is, while Santos (2021) and Figueiredo Junior (2024) highlight tensions between the formative logic of NEM and the rigidity of the military model, Silva et al. (2024) bring innovative experiences of educommunication as a strategy of engagement and multidisciplinarity. Oliveira and Barbosa (2024), by excluding military schools from the comparison between educational networks, reinforce the idea that these institutions operate with different logics and objectives, which makes them separate cases in the analysis of the reform.

In short, the aforementioned studies show that the implementation of NEM in military schools has specificities that influence both the pedagogical structure and the experience in military schools. In common, the analyses indicate that, on the one hand, the hierarchical and centralized model of the schools studied facilitates the implementation of NEM, but, on the other, limits the participation of teachers and students in the overall process, generating tensions and resistances.

Discussing the recent quantitative studies on NEM

Quantitative studies conducted nationally are not consensual about the students’ opinion of NEM. Research conducted by Movimento pela Base (2021), with 2 thousand students from São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul (and from the Industry Social Service Network [SESI]), presents an approval of 61% to the NEM proposal, and among these, 73% see potential for professional qualification with the reform.

Another research carried out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the subject, carried out in 2022 with students, teachers, and managers from all over the country (409 managers, 818 teachers, and 1,227 students), concluded that the greatest dissatisfaction with the new high school is observed among teachers. In this research, the following results are observed:

... considering all of Brazil (76%) ... declared dissatisfaction with the changes resulting from the New High School. Among the Brazilian regions, we have in the Midwest region 85% of dissatisfied teachers; in the North, 84%; in the Northeast, 81%; in the Southeast, 74%; and in the South, 69%

(Unesco, 2024, p. 7).

One of the reasons for dissatisfaction is related to the training received for the execution of NEM. As the most cited positive point (69%), these teachers considered the “strengthening of youth protagonism and development of Life Project” (Unesco, 2024, p. 7). Among the students, 55% of the respondents were dissatisfied with NEM; however, 50% of the respondents had a positive view regarding the increase in youth protagonism, against 46%, who did not see such a possibility. Also, as positive points for the students, the possibility of choosing the training trails, the choice of optional subjects, and the offer of activities focused on the life project were pointed out.

In 2023, a wider audience was heard in a public consultation organized by the Ministry of Education (MEC), counting with the contribution of 102,338 students, 30,274 teachers, and 5,480 managers in the virtual stage (via WhatsApp), and with 11,024 respondents on the Participa + Brasil platform. In this consultation, the general tone is critical, especially to the workload, more specifically concerning the decrease in the components of basic general training, such as Philosophy and Sociology. Other criticisms are related to the withdrawal of previously compulsory subjects, incongruity of the offer of trails and workload established in the Common National Curricular Base (BNCC). Criticisms were also made of the training trails, considering their quantity and contents, understanding the risk of increasing educational inequalities. In summary, the following general concerns were presented: the risk of increasing educational inequality; the disorganization and non-fulfillment of student demands by the trails offered; the understanding that there is insufficient preparation, not improving the chances of entering the labor market or succeeding in ENEM; and the lack of structural and financial resources to effect the changes suggested by NEM (Ministério da Educação, 2023).

Finally, in 2024, the non-governmental organization Todos pela Educação (2024) presented the results of a survey conducted by Datafolha, interviewing 462 young people aged 14 to 16 in 113 municipalities of Brazil. In this survey, positive results were presented, such as a greater interest in curricular flexibility by 65% of respondents and curiosity in deepening in a single area of knowledge by 81%. One must consider that the organization had an influence on the conception of the NEM proposal and actively acts for its implementation, considering interests linked to changes in the contemporary labor market and possibilities of establishing public-private partnerships (Souza et al., 2024). Such interest in NEM is also observed by the organization Movimento pela Base, which presents itself as non-partisan, but invariably promotes proposals with a neoliberal bias and in tune with organizations such as Fundação Lemann and Instituto Unibanco (Silva et al., 2024).

In dialogue with these national data, the research carried out at Colégio Tiradentes de Pelotas confirms this trend of ambivalence: teachers and students recognize the importance of updating high school, but express dissatisfaction with the concrete conditions of its application, perceiving NEM as an imposed reform that generates confusion about the school’s educational objectives.

From this perspective, in the focus of this analysis, we will discuss how teachers and students, in the school where the research was conducted, perceive and experience the implementation of NEM.

The teaching performance between NEM and the daily life of the military school

The teachers’ statements demonstrate a destabilizing school field. NEM, when implemented vertically, breaks the previously established balance between the teacher habitus and the military school structure. As Bourdieu (2011) recalls, each field has its own rules of operation and forms of capital that give it legitimacy; in the case of the military school, a combination of disciplinary capital (hierarchy and order) and cultural capital (pedagogical competence and content mastery).

A first observation is that of the increased workload due to the inclusion of trails. This increase occurs due to the need to adapt and learn from these novelties and changes, as Diego observes: ‟...I myself took two completely new disciplines, in addition to the others that I already had, you know?”. There is an increased demand for the preparation of new content, requiring significant changes in routines that become tiring. In the same vein, Paola comments:

Now I’m teaching Physics here, right, for the three grades, then I teach Experimental Practices, which are not only Physics, right, but from all areas of nature. Uhm, environmental monitoring completely escapes my scope (Paola).

In addition to the relationship with their original training area, which is a common practice as reported by teachers, they are also required to attend to various areas of knowledge due to the lack of specific public tenders, and there is thus an increase in work demand due to the excess of content that must be met. Example of Tania, who comments that she teaches “seven different subjects, and my workload of History is very low”. Relating to the overwork and the lack of adequate training for the execution of these new itineraries, Tania also notes that “we didn’t have any training for this, we didn’t have any preparation, you know?”

Such reports exemplify what Lahire (2004) calls plurality of dispositions: individuals mobilize different competencies and adjust to institutional demands, but under constant tension. The demands of NEM direct teachers to improvise between contradictory dispositions, such as being a specialist and a generalist, a disciplinarian and a “facilitator,” generating a feeling of uprooting.

The overlap of teaching roles and the absence of adequate training show a process of devaluation of the specific capitals of the school field (Bourdieu, 2011). When teachers are compelled to teach subjects outside their area, what Dubar (2020) describes as a ‘rupture in professional socialization’ takes place, materialized as a tension between “being a teacher” and “doing what they are told.” At the same time, this condition requires teachers to activate different dispositions incorporated throughout their trajectories (Lahire, 2004), resulting in a practical and exhaustive fragmentation that indicates traits of the precariousness of teaching in the militarized context.

One of the interviewees ponders that the difficulty in implementing the trails and NEM is a result of the resistance of his colleagues, averse to the “new”:

Interviewer: How do you feel about the reform? I mean, what do you think of its implementation? What’s the perception of students?

Wando: From what I understand, in fact, our education tends to some American perspectives, American research. We, Brazil, are not prepared for them, these reforms. But it’s not more prepared, I’ll be very honest with you, due to the conditions of teacher training, you know? We don’t accept the new. The teacher doesn’t accept the new. We force ourselves to the new. That is a mistake. It’s a very serious problem that we have. Teachers forcing themselves to the new. We do things sometimes, thank you. Because, oh, it came from above, and you include it. And then what happens? Teachers don’t want to do it, because they want to stay in that position that I told you there at the beginning. They want to stay in that same status quo, they don’t want to leave it, or even an “anti” status quo.

On the other hand, Wando’s speech, which sees the reform as an entrepreneurial opportunity, illustrates a case of illusio (Bourdieu, 2011), that is, belief in the game even when it reinforces structural inequalities. Adherence to meritocratic discourse and business vocabulary (“undertake,” “adapt”) reveals how neoliberal rationality has been influencing the military school field, redefining the meaning of the “good teacher” as one who accepts and performs change individually, without questioning the system put into place. It differs, however, from the justifications of the other teachers, since these teachers show dissatisfaction not with the changes themselves, but with the vertical way by which they were implemented, or as declared, from “above.” Diego observes that “This is something that comes from above. It is a structure that is already set up and we have to work”. Hugo also comments in the same sense that

... communities are not asked what they want, and how the Reform will or will not help them. These are top-down decisions. These are absolutely anti-educational, anti-democratic decisions. These movements that exist, and I report this in my work, this appears very clearly, the assemblies that exist, these participations, these popular convocations they serve only so that the power can say that there was participation. But it’s just rhetoric.

In addition to an absence of dialogue, there is an understanding that changes are carried out in an unorganized and abrupt way. Diego comments: “A lot, a lot of change, and, I mean, we didn’t have a previous preparation, you know? That we could do, to study and be prepared. It was all very last minute, like this”. Once again it is stated that the reason for dissatisfaction is the way in which NEM was implemented. Fabio summarizes in his speech the possible central reasons for the tensions regarding NEM. For him:

... if I say that it did not impact, then I’m going to be omitting. It impacted, it impacted a lot. But we try to work in the best possible way, making them understand that, look, did your change have to take place? It had. It had, but it’s how it was imposed that we get worried, you know? It seems it was imposed. So, we get a little like, bothered…

That is, there is no a priori rejection of the new, but rather a critical understanding and an effort to make it well executed, despite its various limitations. Another difficulty is pointed out by Roberto, who considers “that there has to be a change in high school, but not like that. And change without resources is also of no use”. There is a clear gap between the teacher habitus – historically built on a disciplinary and structured teaching model – and the new demands of NEM, which require versatility, adaptation, and skills not previously legitimized in the school field. The introduction of training trails without proper training, planning, or dialogue reinforces a vertical logic of power, which imposes “top-down” changes, disregarding the voice and pedagogical capital of teachers and making their work precarious. This evidences not a refusal to the new in itself, but a criticism of its authoritarian imposition and the absence of objective conditions for its implementation, which destabilizes the teaching practice and even the school’s formative mission (Bourdieu, 2011).

Moreover, many teachers comment on the perceived rejection by students from a pragmatic perspective. Many students choose to enter this school either for a historical reputation, or because it is announced an expectation of approval in different exams, including having in fact, currently, one of the highest approval ratings in the entrance of higher education among its students. With the reform, students began to have a much smaller amount of classes with the subjects that are required by ENEM. Sonia comments:

Sonia: So, exams happens every year, and they attend it accordingly, corresponding to the grade they are in. So, the freshman students, they attend the (specific entrance system of the federal university located in the municipality) related to the first grade, right, and at the end of the year, referring to the year they attended. And what will be on the test? All the content they saw during the year. So, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Portuguese, Mathematics, everything will be there. So, they very resistant and complaining a lot about this issue of having these new disciplines, and these disciplines ended up taking the workload of the others, right?

In the same way, as we described in a previous study, in this school a comparison is also made with private schools that maintain basic subjects, putting students at a competitive disadvantage, as Fabio comments when considering the changes: “ENEM will be the same for everyone. How will our students perform? Are these trails complementing their training for them to prepare for ENEM?” The same competitive weighting is made by Paola, who comments that students “feel that ... they are going to be left behind, for example, by private schools, because private schools started with the New High School, but not in the way that was imposed for public schools”.

The feeling of distrust about their academic future – “we will stay behind private schools” (student) – shows how the reform reorders positions within the educational field. The school capital accumulated in these institutions (best grades in ENEM, reputation of excellence, etc.) is perceived as threatened, and students, when comparing themselves with peers from private schools, feel displaced in the hierarchy of distinction (Bourdieu, 2014). The loss of this symbolic reference also affects the pride associated with military identity and the merit of the effort.

In short, the analysis of student speeches brings a displacement of the student habitus. Between the desire to rise by study and the technical logic of the trails, there emerges a youth who experiences failure not as a lack of effort, but as the result of a system that arbitrarily redefines the criteria for success. “Weariness” is therefore the subjective form of an objective domination.

A possible outcome is a constant tension that can culminate in a crisis, with exhausted teachers, weakened identity, and diminished social recognition, which can be considered symptoms of a structural violence disguised as modernization. An example of this was the abrupt introduction of training trails by the State, disorganizing this field, delegitimizing teaching knowledge and imposing new forms of authority based on “innovation” and “flexibility.”

That is, a greater autonomy of these schools is operated in relation to the State, understood as metafield, due to the interference of economic capital that guarantees the distinction of its students. Hereafter, from the speech of the students themselves, this analysis will be deepened.

Students and NEM: dealing with reality and expectations

From the students’ point of view, dissatisfaction with NEM exceeds the occasional annoyance with the “trails.” It reveals a conflict between the student habitus, related to a meritocratic logic of effort, discipline, and university entrance, and the new curricular structure that relativizes these values.

NEM is rejected by most students. In the question what is your opinion on the new high school?, 64.41% declared to be totally dissatisfied; 24.86%, dissatisfied; 7.34%, neutral; 2.26%, satisfied; and 0.56%, totally satisfied. When 89.27% (144 out of 177 respondents) of the students declare themselves dissatisfied, what emerges is a reaction to the loss of symbolic meaning of schooling. NEM, thought to stimulate protagonism, tends to disorganize the school field as they recognize it. Furthermore, one of the reasons for dissatisfaction can be attributed to what the teachers pointed out regarding the difficulties that are perceived to enter higher education, since the desire to enter universities is another common trait of students.

Asked what they would like to do after high school, 49.72% said they wanted to take a higher education course, and 29.38% said they wanted to work and attend college (adding up to 79.10%, 140 among 177 students). They were asked to define NEM in one word. 93.79% chose a negative term, the most frequent being “tiring,” “terrible,” and “unnecessary.”

Figure 1
Word cloud on student opinions about NEM in a military school (2024)

The first topic addressed in the discussion group with students is related to the identification of NEM as “chaotic” and “troubled,” having as main reason the difficulty it represents to enter higher education:

Interviewer: Yeah, great. So, guys, the first question I wanted to ask you is: could you tell me a little bit about how it’s been studying this year in High School?

Joana: Troubled.

Maria: Chaotic.

Interviewer: Troubled and chaotic.

Maria: Yes, it’s very difficult, at least on our Trail, it’s kind of lost, because the other Trails have a way of going, this will help them more, like, in the [university’s own admission system], in ENEM, and ours is kind of lost, it seems.

Joana: Everything will be on ENEM and Pave. What about us? Most students want Law, Manu wants Architecture, but we study very vague things, such as Entrepreneurship, for example, it’s super important, and I believe that the three Trails should have it.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Joana: So, like, it’s very bad, really, really bad.

There is an evident dissatisfaction due to the difficulty for ENEM and the differences observed between the training itineraries, called Trails, which at the time were three. Similarly to teachers, there is criticism of the way the Trails have been implemented.

Oscar: Yeah, and another thing, we chose the Trail, in a kind of online search, and we didn’t know about that Trail, we chose it by name, right? And then if I asked a teacher, no teacher would know how to explain to me what that Trail would be about: “Oh, this Trail here is for those who want Law”. Okay, but what will addressed by the Trail? Like, am I going to like the subjects, like, what will these subjects encompass?

Laura: The school board.

Oscar: The principal, the school board. Nobody knows how to explain how it works and how it will work from now on, neither for us who are here nor for those who will come. So, like, this confusion generates insecurity, I believe, in many students, and also the anxiety of how it will be from now on, because everyone here is so worried about passing the entrance exam, going to college, achieving prestige. But there’s a lack of, uhm…

Isabel: Preparation.

Oscar: Preparation, precisely.

Criticisms of NEM are related to the possibility of not succeeding in entering higher education, including the justification for the Trail, with sentences such as “This is more focused on Law courses,” “This one is for those who want to study Medicine.” However, just like the teachers, the way in which NEM was presented to them, and in particular the Trails they could choose, is perceived critically:

Isabel: When this whole function of the New High School came, I went to research on government websites and such about it. And I saw that, in theory, a presentation of the Trails to students was needed.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Isabel: And it didn’t happen. We were in the auditorium, right? The teachers sitting at the front, the first graders at the back.

Oscar: Which was ours, right?

Isabel: Which was ours. And then, well, “you’re going to go to the library, at the Chromebooks, and you’re going to vote on which Trail you want next year”. And that was it. “Oh, but what are the Trails?,” “It’s this, this, and this”.

Isabel: there, neither I nor anyone in this school knows what it means. Until today, it will complete one year that I’m on the Trail and I don’t even know the name of the Trail. And then if you ask me like this “what content do you learn?”. Well, then. Which content will you learn by the end of the year? What is the curriculum? Right? What are the subjects of your Trail? For example, okay?

The statements also show a demand for organization and prediction of school activities by students who do not feel contemplated or consulted appropriately with the changes made. The following consultation was held with students: I’m listened to at school, and the degree of agreement was requested. 10.73% said they totally agreed, 22.60% agreed, 18.08% disagreed, 10.73% totally disagreed, and 37.85% said they were neutral. Even with a slightly higher rate of agreement compared to disagreement (33.33% and 29.53%, respectively), the percentage of neutrals is noteworthy. Asked if they would like to have more information and participate in school decisions, 72.32% answered positively; 10.17%, negatively; 16.95% said they did not know; and 0.56% did not have an opinion.

It is also interesting to note the promise of greater freedom of choice. In reality, the way NEM is being implemented means that students have their future options limited, by anticipating the definition of training trails and access to certain profiles on the trails, which give them a previously outlined profile.

Joana: So, most teachers have the vision that everyone wants Law, at class B, at 2B everyone wants Law, I want Law, but I know that not everyone wants it.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Joana: In the entrance exam in the third grade, but you’re in High School, entering High School and facing a reality that is completely different, it makes no sense. It makes no sense at all, because if we had the opportunity to change this choice throughout the year, it would be a different reality. Today, we are in a box.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Joana: and then I limit myself in this box, and they want to propose exactly the opposite of that, for me be the protagonist, that I, uhm, can be prepared to make the choice for my future, but if I have no option, I will continue with that choice, and maybe it is not correct for me.

Thus, the trails and NEM are perceived as a mandatory anticipation of choosing which course should be taken in higher education. Then, contrary to the proposal to provide protagonism and autonomy, there is a limitation to “a box”.

Therefore, the metaphor of the “box” used by Joana – “today, we are in a box” –, expresses the feeling of imprisonment in a system that promises freedom. Here, the notion of symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 2011) is again useful: under the discourse of choice and autonomy, the reform imposes an objective limitation of the possibilities of action. The promise of student “protagonism” requires a prior cultural capital, the ability to plan for the future, understand itineraries, compare trajectories, which these students, for the most part, do not have. Instead of broadening their agency, NEM reinforces inequalities of origin.

The practical result for these students due to the pragmatic profile focused on higher education is the need to, in addition to meeting the demands of time and attention to the trails, seek alternative forms of study of the disciplines that have been reduced and that are evaluation criteria in ENEM. There is, then, a desire for the reduction of the workload assigned to the trails and an increase in disciplines such as Chemistry, History, Physics, Biology, and Geography. One of the students eventually began to miss certain periods allocated entirely to the trail, in order to be able to rest or study at home.

Joana: No, but trying hard and running after it is a great opportunity, especially because it is a public school. [...] But then we came here and it was totally different. And the school, what do they say? The school is not better, Tiradentes is not better or worse than none, it is different. And it really is different. Being here from half past seven in the morning until late afternoon is different. [ ... ] Our trail even has a day that it has a period, Wednesday, okay? It has a Portuguese period in the morning. And what happens?

Laura: No one comes.

Interviewer: Everything else is trail?

Joana: Everything else is all trail. So, what happens? [...] Then, we did the rebellion against the teachers. Got it? But no one knows that the rebellion is against us. It’s not us against it, you know? Because we are not against the teachers, we are not against the school. We are against a system that, in its essence, in its theory, is supposed to help us, but this does not happen in practice.

The above speech characterizes the term most used among students to define NEM: fatigue. At school, the proposed changes increase the workload for students without them seeing an immediate or long-term sense in NEM, making the investment in space and, in particular, in the illusio from the appropriation of the specific habitus, probably hysteretic. It seems that the frustration is not only for the effort expended, but against a system that does not help them in the expected and promised preparation, as already described in Freire (2022). This tension between obedience and autonomy produces frustration and fatigue, the most recurrent word in the open responses. Fatigue, in this context, is socially produced: it results from a structure that requires maximum performance from students (ENEM, entrance exams, military activities) without offering compatible symbolic and material resources.

Thus, the speeches bring us the way students see the entrance to this school, which is made from theoretical and physical tests and with high demand. Asked about the reason for choosing the school, the most frequent answers were: quality of education (53.11%), positive results in ENEM (17.51%), and preference for military school (13.56%). The main motivation, then, is for the quality of teaching, which is recognized, among other ways, for the quality of its teachers:

Joana: I’m not satisfied with my trail, and I believe most are not either. So, you know? And I imagine the schools that have even fewer trail options, because here we have three. Some schools only have two.

Oscar: There’s schools that only have one.

Isabel: And I also think that we have very qualified teachers who help us in trying to encompass the basic disciplines within the trails to help at the time of the entrance exam. But imagine schools that don’t have it, teachers who don’t have that preparation, don’t have that thinking.

That is, passing the idea to students that there will be student protagonism, but in a limited condition, reveals a structural contradiction between the official discourse of NEM and the reality experienced in the school institution. At the same time that the valorization of individual choices and the formation of autonomous subjects is proclaimed, the practical implementation ignores the concrete conditions of agency of these students. Protagonism, as proposed, requires a prior accumulation of cultural and symbolic capital (in the Bourdieusian sense) that many students do not have, and that the school itself, by NEM, should provide. The absence of qualified pedagogical mediation, transparency in information and effective listening compromises the construction of trails and further fragments the meanings attributed to the school experience. Dubar (2020) helps to understand this process as a crisis of socialization. The military school, traditionally organized to form hierarchically disciplined subjects, is tensioned by a curriculum that preaches freedom of choice. The result is a confusing identity process: students who don’t know whether to obey or decide/compete or cooperate/pursue a military career or go to college. The blurring of the “trails” reinforces the feeling of insecurity and helplessness.

The students’ statements also indicate that NEM reconfigures the military school field into three interrelated dimensions: (i) by devaluing traditional cultural capital, the reform generates insecurity about the academic future and destabilizes the sense of academic merit, especially in a context in which entry into higher education is seen as the main form of distinction; (ii) by producing contradictions between obedience and autonomy, NEM creates conflicting dispositions and a feeling of powerlessness, since students are called to be protagonists in an institutional environment which, by its military nature, privileges hierarchy and compliance with orders; (iii) by weakening school identities, the reform transforms daily fatigue into a subjective expression of objective domination: the exhaustion of students is a sign of the tension between promises of freedom and practices of control.

Thus, what students describe as confusing or chaotic is the concrete perception of a broader structural process, the replacement of critical public education with a pedagogy of adaptation. In this perspective, NEM acts as a symbolic device of social reproduction: more than a curricular change, it represents a reconfiguration of hierarchies and routines that guide the school experience.

Final remarks

Teachers and students are not opposed to NEM itself, but to the way it was implemented, its contents, and the political and institutional logic of implementation, which contradicts even what the law promised. For teachers, change without adequate preparation or training tends to make it difficult to teach, as well as generates more work for them. From the speeches, a devaluation of their cultural capitals institutionalized from their specific formations can be observed. They also feel discredited by not being agents of change, having to accept the “top-down” reforms.

Law no. 13,415/2017, which established NEM, provided for the progressive expansion of the workload, the guarantee of general basic training common to all students, the diversified offer of training trails, and the continuous training of teachers for curricular adaptation, in addition to the participation of school communities in the elaboration of pedagogical proposals, as established in Article 12 of the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) (Law no. 9,394/1996). These conditions, however, were not ensured by the Brazilian State.

The notion of protagonism, both for teachers and students, is, in this context, a discursive construction that does not find support in practice. The reform, instead of expanding the possibilities of training and autonomy, imposes a logic of technocratic rationalization, marked by the inequality of resources between public and private networks, which accentuates educational exclusion and collective frustration in the face of the unfulfilled promise of improving the quality of education (Dubar, 2020).

That is, according to the testimony of teachers and students, there is a convergence in the criticism of how NEM was implemented: without dialogue, without structure, and without recognition of local knowledge. The law did not provide for these aspects or the abrupt reduction of disciplines without adequate formative replacement. In addition, the legislation assumed material and organizational conditions that the Brazilian State did not guarantee. The articulation between their reports and the theoretical references shows that the reform reconfigures positions in the school field, redistributing symbolic capital and redefining professional and student identities in a way considered negative by teachers and students.

The study data show that most of these students aim to enter higher education and, like the teachers, do not feel participants in the changes, which are not adequate to them and generate fatigue, because, in addition to having to study fully, they need to independently study for ENEM, since the subjects are not properly addressed by the school. Thus, students, in the same way as their teachers, suffer from overwork. Moreover, the justification of preparing for the future is not materialized, because the trails, instead of giving them opportunities, put them in “a box”. That is, instead of forming “protagonists,” NEM tends to produce school subjects in a functional and precarious way, disoriented about their professional-school future and burdened by curricular demands disconnected from their choices at this moment in their lives.

From the theoretical perspective of Bourdieu (2011, 2014), NEM acts as a mechanism of symbolic reproduction that legitimizes a new hierarchy of knowledge: it values “flexibility,” “entrepreneurship,” and “life project”: cultural capitals tuned to neoliberal rationality (Dardot & Laval, 2016). Furthermore, it devalues critical knowledge and the humanities, traditional forms of distinction of the teacher and the public school. The reform thus shifts the center of gravity of the educational field: merit ceases to be measured by the domain of knowledge and becomes associated with the capacity for individual adaptation.

In Bourdieu (2011), it was also possible to analyze how educational reforms are conducted from hierarchical structures that legitimize only certain knowledge (usually technocratic and economistic) and silence the practical knowledge of teachers and the concrete experience of students. This process operates by symbolic violence, in which reforms are imposed as natural or inevitable, delegitimizing the knowledge and learning of school communities in different societies.

In the work of Lahire (2020), it can be understood that both teachers and students are influenced by multiple and sometimes contradictory dispositions. Teachers oscillate between the ethics of pedagogical commitment and bureaucratic demand, and students, between military discipline and the discourse of autonomy. NEM, by intensifying these contradictions, produces tensioned dispositions, in which subjects have to continually negotiate between obedience and protagonism.

Regarding the understanding that both groups experience a feeling of disorientation, Dubar (2020) helps in understanding that their professional and school identities, built on patterns of stability and predictability, are disrupted by a policy that redefines what it is to “be a teacher” and “be a student” without giving them a voice in the process.

In this scenario, the deliberate exclusion of collective listening in educational decisions is not an accidental mistake, but a structural feature of a model that empties institutional democracy in the name of results management. Schools cease to be public spaces of critical formation to become devices of individual conformation to the capitalist market. The false promise of student protagonism – without consultation, without real option, and without structure – is revealed as a strategy of individual accountability for failures that are a result of an imposed and precarious educational policy. Forming protagonists requires recognizing that listening and participation are conditions of democratic existence and not technical concessions of an educational policy.

Finally, we understand that consulting school communities is essential for the realization of reforms, considering the demands of the participating categories. Possible trails will be useful if teachers have the opportunity to, in addition to being able to participate in the decision, be prepared and receive material means for their offer. In the same way, students, to whom the protagonism in the choice of trails is indicated, demand to be really heard in the elaboration of public policies. That is, an educational reform in schools, whether military or regular, will only be beneficial if it is produced by and with the school communities.

• Support and funding:
  PIBIC/FURG-CNPQ
  PIBIC/FURG-FAPERGS
• Use of AI:
  During the elaboration of the article, the authors used the ChatGPT and Gemini tools for textual review, improvement in the proposition of solutions for “truncated” sentences, and formatting bibliographic references. The authors declare that they have reviewed, validated, edited, and supervised the final text, ensuring its originality, accuracy, and ethical integrity, assuming full responsibility for the content of the publication.
• Copy Editing services:
  Portuguese version: Copy editing and standardization of citations and bibliographical references (7th Edition APA): Mayara Leite <revisã[e-mail]>
  English version: Sabrina Leitzke <[e-mail]>
• 1
  In this article, the central argument of constitution of the military school from a Bourdieusian view of fields and capitals will be only briefly exposed, given that NEM is the center of the analysis. Even so, since this educational public policy intervenes in daily practices and, therefore, in the habitus, a brief presentation of the interpretative framework was required.
• 2
  All participants signed consent and assent forms to participate in the research. Pseudonyms are used for all interviewees. The search registration number on the Brasil platform is 52912021.9.0000.5324. Note that we consider that ethics in research is not guaranteed by registration on this platform, dominated by positivist biomedical orientation. We used the document Guidelines for research ethics and scientific integrity (FCHSSALLA) as a guide.
• 3
  As an assistance purpose, the military regulation defines: “assistance education refers to the genesis and justification of the SCMB itself: the search for an equation of the vicissitudes inherent in the military profession, the difficulties imposed on the military family that impact the morale of the troops” (Ministério da Defesa, 2021, p. 16). That is, as a compensatory action to that inherent disadvantage for those who are dependent on the military: adjusting to frequent transfers, not having greater parental presence, restarting courses in several schools, etc.
• 4
  The regulation is contained in Ordinance no. 1 – SRH5/SRH/DEPA, of November 29, 2024. Retrieved from: https://www.ibalm.com.br/exercito-eb/ensino/
• 5
  On December 22, 2010, the school was authorized to offer high school education, according to Opinion no. 806/2010 – SE Process no. 73.771/19.00/10.1. In the same year, the school regulations were approved, and the operation of the School was authorized.

Data availability:

The contents underlying the research text are contained in the manuscript.

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Edited by

• Responsible editors:
  Associate Editor: Wivian Weller https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1450-2004>
  Editor-in-Chief: Chantal Medaets https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7834-3834>

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 June 2026
• Date of issue
  2026

History

• Received
  26 May 2025
• Reviewed
  13 Nov 2025
• Accepted
  17 Mar 2026