A coleção didática "as mais belas histórias" (1954 - 1976): modernização, nacionalismo e identidade brasileira na obra de Lúcia Casasanta

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate a collection of school textbooks called The Most Beautiful Stories. It was one of the most important collections of books for literacy, distributed in primary schools of Minas Gerais from the mid-twentieth century. The main issue that motivated the research was to understand the factors that ensured the continuity of the material. At the same time identify the representations of a given society that the stories presented. In that Collection, the author Lucia Casasanta mobilizes numerous moral values in circulation in the country, at a time when much of the national intelligentsia sought responses in a changing society. Among them stand out those related to modernization, nationalism and defining an identity of the ideal citizen to be built through education. The analysis of the texts reveals teachings geared for both the cohesion of the Brazilian nation, and to the specificities of the role to be played by boys and girls in the construction of a modern Brazil. The first edition of the collection occurred in 1954, and based on the overall method, it has become a recommended material for literacy of mining children by the Secretaria de Estado de Educação de Minas Gerais (SEEMG). This is the initial criteria for the chronological excerpt of the study. The final cut, 1976, refers to change in that orientation of teaching, reading and writing. In that year was the implementation of a new project called Alfa, with a new methodology and new teaching materials based on phonics. Taking as reference the contributions of Cultural History, the collection, object and source of this research was analyzed critically, both in its internal and external analysis. The theory underlying the work are tributaries of the authors Choppin (2002, 2009), Certeau (2003), Chartier (1990, 1991, 1995, 1998, 2007), Bakhtin (1997) and Prost (2008). The study is part of the History Textbook, also dialoguing with the history of women and gender relations.