Statistical Literacy in Brazil in High and Middle School: an Analysis of Official Documents

In order that students become able to exercise their full rights of citizenship, they need to develop abilities and competencies related to statistical literacy at compulsory school levels. These include being able to read, interpret and criticize media information and take conscious decisions in the face of these readings. In Brazil, in 1998, it was suggested that, in the middle school, the study of statistics be incorporated into the mathematics curriculum, and in 2002 the same was prescribed for the high school level. In this context, the aim of this paper is to identify the institutional practices of statistical literacy as specified by the Education Ministry in their official documents and to analyse in the pedagogical orientations, also supplied by the Ministry, the expected levels of statistical literacy levels. Results show that there have been great improvements in relation to statistical literacy, but much has yet to be done in the compulsory school.