The objective of this article is to assess works on the topic of educational planning that were published in the journal Cadernos de Pesquisa. In order to do so, articles relating to the topic were surveyed, dating back to journal's first publication. An analysis was conducted on the editorial format of the journal, the textual structure of the published works, the design and purpose of educational planning and its link with State planning. In the period from 1972 to 1986, 35 articles were found in the Educational Planning section.

The perspective that guided the analysis of this material is based on the discussion of the history of planning in capitalist countries, particularly in Latin America, in which, from the 1950s, with the creation of the Economic Commission for Latin America - CELAC -and with the implementation of national development policies in Latin American countries, a certain model of planning spread, which was aligned with a State interventionist conception.

In Latin America, planning gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s, as a factor for promoting economic growth and social development. Therefore, this coincided with the development of an economic model that encouraged industrialization by replacing imports at the end of World War II, and the creation of CELAC in 1948, which served in design of an explanatory model for economic inequalities between countries, contributing to the creation of a developmental perspective of State intervention in the economy and state performance strategies through global and sector planning (FERNANDES, 2006). CELAC was the great driver in Latin American industrialization and its planning, having an important contribution in development of explanations for Latin America backwardness in relation to the so-called developed centers, and demonstrating ways of overcoming them (MANTEGA, 1995).

In methodological terms, the current planning was "normative" or "rational-developmentist", characterized by its centralization in a specialized body of the State and by the effort to submit social and economic realities to modern scientific rationality.¹ There exist several techniques and methodologies of planning grouped within the prescriptive approach, since they constitute, in essence, of a rigorous sequence of steps: diagnosis, decision, analysis, basic proposal and basic project containing objectives, activities, schedule of activities, resources, costs and sources of funding.

The term rational-developmentist planning (racional-desarrollista) was suggested by Carlos A. de ^{Mattos (1987}), because it is an activity inspired by a single rationality, which is both substantive (subject to social purposes established a priori) and formal (subject to concrete technical employment that aims to optimize the relationship between the means and ends) and for being linked to the developmental conception of State intervention. Carlos Matus (1987, 1993, 1997) named it normative planning, due to the rigidity of the steps and the predominance of an economic perspective in the analysis of the reality subject to the plan. Other terms used for planning methodologies developed in the 1950s, and 1960s are economic and social planning and traditional planning.

In Latin America, the delineation of normative planning methodologies was driven by the CELAC, which, based on the Soviet model, published Introducción a la técnica de programación in 1955. Other international bodies which dedicated themselves to this were the Organization of American States - OAS -, a promoter of the Inter-American Educational Planning Seminar taking place in Washington in 1958, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD -, which implemented the methodology of human resources planning in Peru and Argentina, using the success of the Mediterranean Regional Project in Southern Europe as a reference.

Recognized as the most appropriate instrument for Latin American States to intervene into the economy of their countries and promote development, normative planning was officially adopted at the Punta del Este Meeting in 1961, when the Alliance for Progress was established. The agreement required Latin American countries to draw up plans for development as a counterpart for external investment to give continuity to the project of Latin America's modernization.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, there was an effort to organize education in an integral and rational manner in Latin America, and create "educational systems" adapted to then-current economic and social development, through the use of rational-normative planning techniques. Within this perspective, the first educational plan drawn up in Latin America was the five-year Primer Plan Qüinqüenal de Educación of Colombia in 1956.

Latin America was the second region, after Europe, to start planning activities of education, which clarifies investment made in educational planning and its dissemination in the period from 1972 to 1986, when the Carlos Chagas Foundation published the Educational Planning section in the journal Cadernos de Pesquisa.

Full text in PDF