Means or Ends? Pedagogical Intentionality and the Politics of Technology Integration in Brazilian Public Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Education through an international context

Abstract

What does it mean to teach with technology and whose purposes does it serve? This study examines how “pedagogical intentionality” is conceptualized by state education representatives, key actors in shaping policy implementation, across seven Brazilian states and the Federal District. Drawing on Discourse Analysis, the study explores how intentionality is framed: structured planning and lesson design, strategic curricular alignment, ethical and institutional commitment, context-responsiveness. While widely affirmed as essential, its meanings are shaped by local conditions. The findings reveal how pedagogical purpose is preserved, negotiated, or overshadowed within modernization discourses, exposing tensions between national innovation mandates and local pedagogical reasoning. This work reclaims pedagogical intentionality as a condition for imagining educational futures that are both contextually grounded and just.

Author

• Bruna Damiana Heinsfeld, University of Minnesota