O percurso institucional da disciplina História da Educação em Minas Gerais e o seu ensino na Escola Normal Oficial de Uberaba (1928 1970)

Abstract

This research fits into the field of History of Education, sub-area History of School Subjects; it has as its object the trajectory registered by the History of Education , a curricular component of the old normal 1 high school courses in the State of Minas Gerais; it was a subject officially prescribed by the authorities of the educational department of this state, under a relatively autonomous format as from 1928, and thus it remained until the mid-sixties. In order to delineate the contours of the object of this investigation, a guiding fundament was initially constituted, in line with Chervel (1990), which is the idea that a research concerning the history of a school subject should be developed, simultaneously based on two plans: that of prescription and that of teaching. In this line of thought, the hermeneutics starts off with the following query: How did the institutional trajectory of the subject History of Education take shape historically in the external scope and its teaching in the internal scope of the Escola Normal Oficial de Uberaba (MG) (Official School for Primary Teacher Training of Uberaba) from 1928 to 1970? This choice of period corresponds to an outstanding cycle in the existence of this subject in the primary teacher training courses in the state of Minas Gerais. There is no a priori hypothesis to be tested in answering the query, for this is a qualitative research, which was developed with the purpose of covering two plans. Thus, on one hand, in the macro sphere, it contemplates the legislative prescriptions in a state or national scope, and on the other hand, a closer dimension, intends to unveil the pedagogic practices, having as a locus the Escola Normal Oficial de Uberaba (MG). Apart from the referential works related to the theme under development, the research had access to documents from the Legislative Assembly of the State of Minas Gerais, from the Secretariat of Education of the State of Minas Gerais, from the Public Archives of Uberaba-MG (iconographical material and newspapers cuttings) as well as the archives of the schooling institution itself under research. In order to reconstitute the historical memory of the daily school practices, apart from the written documents, there were interviews carried out with old students and one teacher and through them we had contact with notebooks, photos and other historical testimonies. The data obtained allowed us to build up a historical trajectory which covers the prescriptive aspects of the subject right form the very first mention in the curriculums of the State primary school teacher training courses as part of the Pedagogy subject; after this there was its institutionalisation in a relatively autonomous manner at the end of the twenties, going through modifications imposed on a national level as from the Organic Law of Primary Teaching Training (1946), reaching the sixties when again it underwent severe transformations. Concerning the teaching, in the internal plan of the local institution, the performance of two teachers was highlighted: Leôncio Ferreira do Amaral and Wanda Ferreira Prado. We reached them as from a biographical approach which identified them personal and professionally in a detailed manner, and the pedagogic aspect was understood based on the constituents of a school subject (Chervel, 1990), chosen in this research, as categories for analysis, such as: identification of the content (or themes) developed, how it was passed on to the class, the students motivation for this subject, the types of exercises applied for learning the subject and the forms of assessment. Finally, the result of this teaching in the lives of the students.