Biological evolution in curricula of countries with different links between state and religion

Abstract

The plural features of society can be perceived in education through the analysis of school curricula. This paper analyses curricula from three Latin American countries with different links between State and Religion: Argentina constitution refers Catholicism has its official religion; Brazil assumes secularism officially but there is considerable religion influence on the State affairs; Uruguay has a higher consolidated secularism. The controversial theme of biological evolution was analysed in secondary school biology curricula of these three countries. To achieve this goal, school national programmes, syllabi and other related documents from each country were analysed. Results showed that curricula provide modern approaches with regard to the teaching of biological evolution. Argentina and Brazil have decentralizing policies set up by their Federal Ministry of Education in which the 23 Provinces (in Argentina) and the 26 States (in Brazil) define their specific curriculum contents. This system leads to differences between more conservative Provinces/States where biological evolution can be absent and more liberal Provinces/States where biological evolution is present. Uruguay highlights biological evolution explicitly in its national curriculum, possibly because of its solid secularism. From overall findings, it can be concluded that State secularism may influence the design of the biology curriculum, particularly in controversial matters, as biological evolution.