Public Policies and the Mathematics Textbook

Abstract

This paper presents the policies and programs of the Brazilian government regarding textbooks for elementary and middle-grade teaching, with emphasis on the last 10 years. One can see a change from basically controlling actions to an approach more concerned with the pedagogical quality of the text-books. The evolution of the quality of mathematics text-books evaluated for adoption in public schools over the last ten years is briefly discussed. The ideological or political motivations for the interventions of the government in the text-book market are purposely not discussed, since this would require a deep and complex study. Keywords: Textbooks. Public Policy.