<strong>THE LOCAL CURRICULUM AS A SOCIAL SPACE OF THE COEXISTENCE OF THE DISCOURSES – MOZAMBIQUE</strong>

Abstract

The paper explores to which extent, trough the introduction of the Local Curriculum in Mozambican schools, a social space for dialog between local and universal knowledge is institutionalized. It is argued that the Local Curriculum is not only a space for the integration of both kinds of knowledge, of values and of local practices, but potentially it is a space of negotiation, evaluation and validation of both. The paper explores also the question of the possibility that Local Curriculum offers to overcome the «silent coexistence» between the universal and the local curriculum knowledge. The outlined arguments are theoretical and empirical. The theoretical argument, making fruitful the Hountondjean concepts of appropriation and of the reappropriation, explores the hypothesis of the Local Curriculum being a «space of the coexistence of the discourses». The empirical argument is based on the field studies undertaken during October and November 2003 in primary schools in the districts of Báruè, Sussundenga and in the city of Chimoio (province of Manica, Mozambique). Those were the first pilot-schools to introduce the Local Curriculum.