The relevance of historical-cultural theory to critical school psychology in Brazil

The relationship between psychology and education in Brazil begins in the 19th century. The knowledge of psychology and the practices developed by psychologists in education are subject to review under the influence of Marxist thought, from the discussions in the field of Sociology and Sociology of Education, Philosophy and Philosophy of Education, Psychoanalysis and Social Anthropology. Such criticisms have focused on: a) the object of study of School Psychology and their epistemological basis, b) the method of investigation; c) the practices developed by the schooling and d) the purposes of psychologists in school education. In the midst of such criticism, historical-Cultural Psychology presents theoretical and methodological perspective while allowing to understand learning and human development on materialistic concept, cultural-historic unveiling key aspects that contribute directly to unveil the complexity of schooling. In School Psychology in a critical perspective, school difficulties are understood as an expression of social, cultural, educational, political and institutional aspects. The methodological, historical and cultural criticism of School Psychology in Brazil materializes basically into three main dimensions: 1. in research and teaching, with the establishment of more than 50 research groups and in disciplines in undergraduate courses in psychology and pedagogy; 2. in the performance of Basic and Higher Education professionals; 3. in political activism through the formation of collectives that fight for advances in the construction process of humanization of the social, as the founding of the Forum on Medicalization of Education and Society. In this session, these aspects will be discussed.