FROM THE POMBALINA REFORM TO BRAZILIAN EDUCATION: CONTINUITIES, DISRUPTIONS, AND CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE

Abstract

This study examines the educational reforms implemented by the Marquis of Pombal in the 18th century and their impact on the development of Brazilian education up to the present. The research contextualizes the Pombaline period in Portugal and colonial Brazil, highlighting the expulsion of the Jesuits and the creation of the royal classrooms, marking the shift from a religious to a secular, state-controlled education system. The methodology is qualitative, historical, and bibliographical, based on authors such as Saviani, Romanelli, Carvalho, and Nóvoa. The findings indicate that Pombaline reforms introduced principles of centralization, rationality, and social utility of education, whose influence persists in contemporary Brazilian educational policies. However, the study also notes the coexistence of institutional advancements with limitations, such as access inequalities and the elitist nature of education. It concludes that Pombal’s legacy is ambivalent: modernizing and structuring, yet restrictive and hierarchical, providing important insights into the historical tensions that still characterize education in Brazil.