SUBSTITUTION PEDAGOGY – BETWEEN NEOLIBERAL DISMANTLING AND DISGUISED PRIVATIZATION: TEACHER OUTSOURCING AND EDUCATIONAL PPPS IN CONTEMPORARY BRAZIL

Abstract

Amid the advance of neoliberal reforms in the educational field, Brazil has experienced the consolidation of a logic that can be understood as a “pedagogy of substitution” – that is, the replacement of educational guarantees and stable employment bonds with precarious, outsourced models driven by market-oriented efficiency. This article aims to critically analyze contemporary forms of disguised privatization in Brazilian public education, with emphasis on teacher outsourcing processes, public-private partnerships (PPPs), and administrative arrangements that exempt the State from its responsibilities. The study is guided by the following question: to what extent does the outsourcing of the teaching function, through programs such as “School Partner” and PPPs in São Paulo, represent the consolidation of a pedagogy of substitution that undermines pedagogical autonomy, education quality, and teachers’ career rights? Through the analysis of concrete cases in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Goiás, and Rio Grande do Sul, the article shows how the transfer of educational management to private companies or social organizations has become a systematic strategy to replace public education with managerial and technicist models, under the discourse of innovation and efficiency. This research draws upon the works of Affonso (2021), Antunes (2006; 2009; 2018), Apple (1993; 2006; 2008; 2019), Ball (1994; 2007; 2008), Barsamian (1998), Batista (2019), Chomsky (1998), Dardot (2014), Enguita (1989), Frigotto (1999; 2001; 2010; 2017; 2021), Gentili (1999), Giroux (2011; 2013; 2014; 2022), Hargreaves (2001; 2003), Laval (2014; 2019), Leher (2016; 2019), Orso (2019), Saviani (2008; 2021), as well as journalistic data about the educational context in each of these states. The research adopts a qualitative (Minayo, 2008), descriptive and bibliographic (Gil, 2007) approach, with a comprehensive analytical perspective (Weber, 1949). The findings revealed that teacher outsourcing and PPPs operate as structural mechanisms of precarization and state withdrawal, compromising pedagogical autonomy and educational quality. It was found that private management of public schools promotes managerial and meritocratic models, weakens professional bonds, and reduces education to a service subordinated to market logic. Furthermore, these processes are connected to the expansion of neoliberal policies of control and performativity, dismantling the social and emancipatory role of public schooling.