The project was structured to seek answers to the following questions: What is the impact of the contributions from Didactic Publications Research Center (Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas – NPPD) in the field of educational media research in Brazil? How does this production dialogue with international production on the subject? The two main objectives of the research are: a) to analytically describe the set of studies carried out by the researchers at different levels of training, indicating thematic trends and methodological approaches used; b) to provide a synthesis of the contributions to the conceptual development of the field and to facing school issues related to textbooks and educational media. This presentation brings the partial results of the ongoing study that analyses an ensemble of researches on textbooks and educational media conducted by the Didactic Publications Research Center – NPPD from the Federal University of Paraná – UFPR (Southern Brazil), from 2000 to 2023. Evaluation studies in a variety of knowledge fields reveal that the last three decades brought a significant increase on the number of master and doctorate researches presented in Brazil about several school subjects in different school levels. This increase is related to the consolidation of the Brazilian National Program for Textbooks and Didactic Materials (Programa Nacional do Livro e do Material Didático – PNLD) that evaluates, purchase and distribute textbooks free of charge for public schools that join that program (it is open to any public school in the whole country). Due to its dimension, it is possible to state that the PNLD is an impact factor in the production of textbooks and didactic material in several aspects: graphic and visual organization; content; and teaching methodologies. Those aspects are previously defined in public notices and must be considered by authors and publishers. The strength and stability of the PNLD during several decades, particularly due to the active participation of Brazilian universities on the evaluation process, brought effects on the constitution of a significant “scientific field” related to the study of this theme, according to Bourdieu's (2004) sociological theory. In this sense the textbook becomes a “scientific object”, different agents establish their academic trajectories and organize their research groups, disputing spaces of scientific production, financial resources and symbolic power on this scientific field. According to this theoretical perspective, the NPPD can be positioned as part of this movement of construction and strengthen of a particular academic field that takes textbooks as a “scientific object” in different theoretical perspectives and different scientific approaches. The researchers whose works are analyzed in this study represent a wide sample of knowledge fields, are issued from several different educational institutions and this multidisciplinary work resulted on an expressive and plural of undergraduate researches, master and doctoral degrees, as well as post-doctoral internships. In that way the research here presented brings the results of a revision study conducted in accordance to the Vosgerau & Romanowski (2014) classification, mapping the ensemble of researches in the form of a “state of knowledge”. The empirical material of this overview included undergraduate researches, master thesis, doctoral dissertations and post-doctoral reports from 2000 to 2023. In the actual stage of the research the focus was concentrated on the titles, abstract, keywords and introductory chapters of the researches ensemble. Other relevant elements also have been analyzed, such as the authors and their original academic field. As a review study, one of the departure points is the use of the research classification proposed by Johnsen (2001) in his classical study, but also including new classification issued from historical, social and geographical particularities, such as the digital supports and regional specific situations (Brazil/Latin America). As results it is possible to point a) the protagonism of the NPPD as a relevant center for the scientific production on the theme of textbooks and didactic materials; b) a map of the prevailing methodological approaches elected by this wide group of researches; c) identification of tendency of future researches, including scientific gaps to be surpassed; d) the systematization of theoretical references that contribute to better understand the structure of this research field as well as the roles of its agents.

References

 Bourdieu, P. (2004). Os usos sociais da ciência: por uma sociologia clínica do campo científico. (Les usages sociaux de la Science. Pour une sociologie clinique du champ scientifique). São Paulo: UNESP.

 Johnsen, E.B. (2001). Textbooks in the kaleidoscope. Tønsberg: Høgskøle i Vestfold.

 Vosgerau, D.S. R, Romanowski,J. P. (2014). Estudos de revisão: implicações conceituais e metodológicas(Review studies: conceptual and methodological implications). Rev. Diálogo Eduacional,  14 (41), p. 165-189.