Teaching Physics according to textbooks (From Capanema Reform to Law 5692/1971)

Four decades of Physics textbooks were researched, from 1940 to 1980, considering the history of school contents. We characterized the proposals for teaching Physics in Brazil, identifying the contexts of educational policies and their relations with editorial policies. The study considers textbooks, through their authors, their implicit and explicit educational objectives, their specific contents, and their proposals for the development of pedagogical activities. From the 1940s onwards, the textbook publishers and authors were concentrated in São Paulo, being public school teachers in the early periods (1940–1950) and teachers of preparatory courses for colleges entrance exams in the following decades (1960–1970), many of them with textbooks published for up to 3 (three) decades. Although three educational reforms took place in the period, differing by valuing theoretical scientific thinking (the 1940s); alignment of the physics themes with the physical science areas, and adding in its formulation the importance of the experimental character (the 1950s); technological and professional training (1960s/1970s), the proposal for teaching Physics implemented in textbooks by the same authorship changed very little, aiming to adapt it to each new legal demand. On the other hand, the arrival of the PSSC in Brazil represents a milestone for Physics teaching, leading to reflections that resulted in teaching projects in the early 1970s, all created in São Paulo, reflecting different forms of content development, from a more cultural view, with Physics very contextualized and the experimental character extensively explored, to projects with very theoretical and conceptual content, similar to the development of contents proposed in universities training physicists or physics teachers. It can be said that the 1970s was one of the richest periods in physics teaching propositions, with different visions of physics and teaching.

Keywords
Textbook; teaching between 1940 and 1980; educational legislation