A escola doméstica de Brazópolis: a educação profissional feminina nas montanhas mineiras (1927-1965)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the expansion of the curriculum and the formation of the Educational Institution for girls in southern Minas Gerais. The time frame chosen corresponds to the period from 1927, the school's creation date, until the year 1965, the last year of operation of the institution. The methodological procedure sought to dialectically analyze the local, state and national articulations regarding house work education. Sources of study includes educational legislation, yearbook, minutes of the institution, and the Press. The analysis of these sources followed the theoretical framework presented in the interrelation of vocational education, with exclusion, poverty and youth. As theoretical support were used reference authors in History of Education, Feminine Education and Vocational Education, produced by researchers, such as: RIBEIRO, ARAÚO and SILVA (2017), RIBEIRO (2017), REIS and MARTINEZ (2012) ), GONÇALVES (2012) and RODRIGUES (2007). The research presented stems from the question: What is the social mission of the Domestic School of Brazópolis and the influences of the curriculum in the formation of the students? The premise is that this education was aligned with a high social class, but with places funded by the municipality and state for less fortunate students - who developed a job late, because the obligations at home were imposed and professional opportunities were a priori intended for the male worker. The study is part of a larger research project: “Education, Poverty, Politics, and Marginalization: Labor Force Formation in the New Capital of Minas Gerais,” 1909–27, approved by FAPEMIG and CNPq, Brazilian research funding academic agencies. The findings of the research indicate that the Brazópolis Domestic School had a broad cultural and social curriculum that provided an important education for the Brazopolian woman, with the intention of improving those woman's home. The institution's curriculum was designed from European curricula, imported from Belgium precisely, based on the idea of women's education as a possibility for social change from home. Despite strong religious and conservative ideas, the school managed to change a social paradigm, but it is also assumed that women did not occupy positions in the labor market, being their performance linked to domestic tasks and subsequently taking social spaces, achieving social visibility and employability. The results of the research indicate that the Brazopolis Domestic School included in its curriculum important competences for teaching domestic tasks and technical subjects intended for moral and religious improvement of the students. The girls experienced learning situations through group life, indispensable for life in society and in the family. It is concluded that through its developed practices, the institution was of great importance for the progress of women in society, raising female autonomy, opening social spaces, establishing the values of her intellect. It is noticed the modification of the curricular structure in the school's timeline of operation, with the inclusion of scientific subjects and the formation for the Teaching course allowing a favorable conjuncture for economic emancipation and opening to the labor market. We emphasize the importance of this institution for the social and professional formation of students in the municipality and region of Brazópolis, since there were enrollment of students from various cities in the institution due to its notoriety.