Study of the electrostatics approach in brazilian physics school books of the last hundred years

Abstract

Textbooks are an important source of research on the history of education, in terms of political influence, practical curriculum, educational methodologies of each era, among many other aspects. In this text, we present the analysis of secondary school Physics textbooks used in Brazil over the last hundred years, specifically in the theme Electrostatics. The sub-themes focused were four: electrical charges; materials and processes of electrification; Coulomb's law and charge distribution; electric field. The books were chosen in order to contemplate all the different paradigmatic periods identifiable in the literature. Our descriptive analysis sought to contemplate the main aspects mentioned as most important in the evaluation and selection of textbooks. Observing the approach of Electrostatics, we saw that the books essentially did not differ from the paradigmatic characteristics of the time in which they were produced and published, and from the contemporary influences to which they were exposed. However, over these 100 years, the Physics books do not seem to have reached the objective of making the learning of Physics more stimulating, associating the student's success in the discipline with the understanding of natural and social phenomena.