A school that looks back. Reductionism and ideological simplifications in the New National Guidelines

Abstract

This paper aims to critically analyse the New National Guidelines, highlighting some of the pedagogical assumptions that underpin their theoretical framework and outlining their cultural reference point.  The text will therefore be approached using the symptomatic method (Althusser, 1968), adopting a reading strategy that goes beyond the immediately visible meaning to examine the system of assertions in order to identify the effects on the emerging ideas of students and teachers in the production of the concepts that support the form of discourse. This analysis will highlight the reductionism and simplifications of a substantially regressive proposal regarding the student/teacher relationship, as outlined in the N.I.N. proposal.