The early 1980s were decisive in Brazilian history, with radical changes that affected the structure of society. Within the euphoria of political freedoms that had been reconquered after a long period of military rule (1964-1985), the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), which had opposed the military dictatorship, managed to elect the majority of its candidates to public office. In Curitiba, Maurício Fruet was made mayor (1983-1985) and adopted a policy of overcoming the technical posture in education. Historical-critical pedagogy was then assumed as the educational concept that best identified with these purposes. The roots of this pedagogy are in the French movement of 1968, which stimulated the emergence of critical theories (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1970; Baudelot and Establet, 1971). These theories came to be known and studied in Brazil, promoting the development of a concept called by Saviani "historical-critical", which conciliated the critical nature of articulation with social conditions, linking the historical dimension. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the adoption of the historical-critical pedagogy in the continuing education of teachers of the municipal schools of Curitiba in the period 1983-1985 and the beginning of an emancipatory process in its operations. From a methodological point of view, it is a documentary research study, which was based on reports available in the archive of the municipal educational system of Curitiba. The theoretical basis for the study was obtained in studies of Mello (1995) and Saviani (2008), among others. Of the studies it was found that, in historical-critical pedagogy, the school's responsibility for systematic knowledge, its transmission and its assimilation is extremely relevant. To perform this task well, teachers must have technical competence, not in the technicalist sense, but involving the proper domain of school knowledge to be transmitted; understand the multiple relationships between the various aspects of the school; understand the relationship between technical preparation, school organization and the results of their action; and develop a broader understanding of the relationship between school and society. These were the grounds justifying the continuing education of teachers in the Curitiba municipal educational system, leading them to discuss not only the technical aspects of their practice, but also the understanding of history, based on the material conditions of human existence. The results showed a continuing education of teachers with emphasis on the development of technical and political skills needed to implement the pedagogical proposal implemented.  Teachers began to rethink the educational action and their own role, so that they could act in the decentralization of decisions in a more horizontal relationship, involving parents, students and teachers in the educational process, that valued the student`s culture and instrumentalized it for a critical, transforming and participative proceeding. In light of this democratic and participatory process, a different dynamic was installed in schools of the Curitiba municipal educational system. Teachers began to intervene in the implementation of their plans and projects, initiating an emancipatory process in relation to the central power.