The National Secondary Education Examination (Enem), as part of a policy for this period of school learning, means a true revolution in the future of education in the country. The evaluation tends to consolidate what is determined by the guidelines of federal law, defined in the National Curricular Parameters (PCNs), at least with regard to the field of “Languages, Codes and their Technologies”, as assessed, in a doctoral thesis defended at the Institute of Language Studies (IEL), researcher Cynthia Agra de Brito Neves. 

To understand the importance of Enem, Cynthia went to France to study high school in high schools and the final assessment of French students, which would be, hypothetically, similar to the Brazilian exam, the so-called baccalaureate, nicknamed Baccalaureat ou le bachôt. France was chosen because, for years, it was the main reference for Brazilian curricula and, even today, it is a determining country in debates in the human sciences. Assessments, such as ferry and Enem, because they end up determining the secondary school curriculum in both countries. “Brazilian high school now does not direct its classes only with the argument 'this falls into the entrance exam', but also 'this falls into the Enem'”, reflects the researcher, even recognizing that, in her area, the Enem proposal is not the of a test that prioritizes the content.

In France, Cynthia attended around 40 hours of classes in two high schools. Here in Brazil, another 50, in two private schools and one public school in the Campinas region. “My research is what we call qualitative, subjectivist, and includes the transcription of all the classes I attended in class diaries. I contrasted the two teachings, collected teaching material, observed classroom dynamics, always focusing on how poetic genres circulate in class, how the teacher works with this and how students receive the poems”.

The thesis author's concern with poetic genres has many reasons. In the introduction to the work, she already defends the recovery of the teaching of poetry in the classroom. “After all, '(...) the poetic word founds people. Without epic there is no society possible, because there is no society without heroes in which to recognize oneself'”, she highlights, using the words of writer Octávio Paz. 

Cynthia agrees with scholars who criticize language teaching concerned only with functional uses, “from a communicative or utilitarian perspective of language that, centered on everyday themes, makes use of resources and texts taken from the media (newspapers and magazines) , or other non-literary discourses, as if they were the only important ones in linguistic and educational training”, he writes.

In general, the researcher claims to have found more similarities than differences between the teaching-learning of poetic genres in the classroom in Brazil and France. “Both there and here, there is an overvaluation of the formal aspect of the poem. Firstly, the student is asked to recognize whether the poem is a sonnet, then identify the rhyme and meter. Furthermore, there is an insistent search for figures of speech, so the student is forced to discover the metaphor, to find the antithesis, that is, an 'efferent' reading is practiced instead of an 'aesthetic' reading - this is what 'sin' of some teachers”, he criticizes. 

Students, in turn, try to escape this formalism by “circumventing” classes with unusual questions. Cynthia says that in France students asked, for example, if Charles Baudelaire was homosexual, if he used drugs; in Brazil, if Fernando Pessoa was schizophrenic, if he was bipolar, and in this way, they “disturbed” the teacher, always worried about completing the class schedule.

One of the differences noted between the two countries was the reading of poetry aloud in France. “Students are asked to read the poem and recite it carefully, while in Brazil, in the schools I was in, students have no 'turn or voice', except when they take out a rap from their pocket and declaim it unexpectedly, like I witnessed it in a public school.” According to the author, this is due to the fact that, in France, students of school have the baccalaureate oral, and in this exam the reading of poetry aloud is required, which does not occur in Brazil. Once again, assessments define curricula and not the other way around”, he reflects.

Contrast

The contrast between French and Brazilian education arises from a historical curiosity. The European country's pedagogy has influenced Brazilian pedagogy since at least the 19th century. Brazil practically imported the French secondary education program and even the books that were used in France were read here, especially at Colégio Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro, whose curriculum was a national reference. The teaching of the French language remained in Brazilian curricula, with 15 hours of class per week, until 1971.

It was thinking about whether this influence still persists today that the author developed her research hypothesis. Enem would have some relationship with the ferry? The French exam has existed since 1880. In 2011, when Cynthia was in France, 71,6% of students had achieved the French diploma. ferry. In Brazil, the author points out, although the exam is much more recent, today more than 60 federal universities use only the Enem score for student admission and even other state institutions, such as in São Paulo, have used the exam as part of the entrance exam score. Furthermore, the exam is also used to access programs offered by the federal government, such as the University for All Program (ProUni), the Student Financing Fund (Fies) and the Science without Borders program. 

“Enem is an exam that deals with literature in an interesting way, without the concern of demanding dates and literary movements, without insisting that students memorize characteristics of authors and works, in other words, it does not have that encyclopedic concern that marked our teaching from the 1970s to the 1990s. Enem proposes questions of text interpretation, intertextuality, contemplating the student’s poetry and literary experience”.

The author emphasizes that the exam assesses reading skills and abilities and that “literary literacy” is crucial for the student to read and know how to interpret the world: “the ability to effectively appropriate literature, poetry, through aesthetic experience and fruition. The more the student-reader takes ownership of the text and gives himself to it, the richer his aesthetic experience will be, and the more literate, critical, autonomous and humanized he will be”, argues the researcher, making reference to “The right to literature”, by Antonio Candido.

Enem follows the guidance of the National Curricular Parameters which, as determined by the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB no. 9.394/96), replaced “Communication and Expression” with teaching “Languages, Codes and their Technologies”. In the same way, we no longer talk about “writing”, but about “textual production” based on genres. Multiliteracies and new technologies are also highlighted in the PCNs. 

“Reading the official curricula we find several points that discuss the teaching of mother tongue, for example, with Bernard Schneuwly and Joaquim Dolz, two professors from the University of Geneva who propose working with genres in the classroom. We are talking to Europe all the time and this has reached schools through textbooks recommended and distributed by the MEC,” he says.

Cynthia is also an Enem corrector and states that the conception of language that guides the work is that which does not allow qualifying a student based on the number of spelling errors they make, “that they are penalized for each accent they forget”. Even entrance exams, she adds, many are no longer quantitative. “I know this is a much criticized aspect of our work, without reason. Of course, there is still a lot to improve, but I believe that Enem is on the right path”, she concludes.

Publication

Thesis: “Literature in high school: poetic genres in Brazil and France”
Author: Cynthia Agra de Brito Neves
Advisor: Maria Viviane do Amaral Veras
Unity: Institute of Language Studies (IEL)