In the context of contemporary education, characterised by the emptying of disciplinary content in favor of active methodologies and competencies (as proposed in the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base, or BNCC), Lev Vygotsky emerges as a key critical interlocutor. Although he did not explicitly defend a “pedagogy of content,” his cultural-historical theory demonstrates that effective, educational processes necessarily depend on the mediation of systematised knowledge, especially scientific concepts and language. Vygotsky overcomes the false dichotomy between content and process by showing that cognitive development occurs when content knowledge is actively and mediately appropriated, rejecting both content- based traditionalism and empty activism. Thus, his work provides the basis for a pedagogy that, without denying the importance of innovative methodologies, reintroduces content as the structuring axis of teaching practice and emphasizes the irreplaceable role of the professor in the intentional mediation of knowledge.