IN PURSUIT OF CONSENSUS: “THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL”, ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS AND HEGEMONY

Abstract

On this paper, based on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, we analyzed the strategies used by the fraction of the dominant classes to obtain social consent on high school reform (Law no 13.415/2017), prior to the publication of Provisional Measure no 746/2016 and in the context of the movement of school occupations. To address that, a survey was conducted on online journals with the aim of mapping the process of construction of the reform, and also gathering information on the advertising campaign aired on the main national TV stations. It was possible to show that the process of imposition of the reform went through processes of both coercion and consensus. The promotion of the idea of educational crisis organized by the hegemonic media sustained the reform, contributing to create active and passive consensus of the masses to the imposed changes, whilst the State repression was on groups that did not support the changes, particularly on movements of high school students.