Educação para a Redenção: Representações educacionais na Revista da Campanha Nacional de Educação Rural (1954 - 1962)

Abstract

This dissertation, developed in the research line of the History and Historiography of Education, aimed to understand the representation constructed by the National Campaign for Rural Education (CNER) in relation to its educational proposal as a condition for the redemption of the rural environment, through the discourse present in the Magazine of the National Campaign for Rural Education Rural (RCNER). Three objectives guided the research: to identify how CNER and RCNER were structured; to understand the educational model proposed by the Campaign and to analyze the reverberations of the RCNER discourse in the actions developed by CNER. The Magazine was a publication of the Ministry of Education and Culture and had as its fundamental purpose to support the actions of CNER, which was launched in 1952 with the aim of disseminating basic education to rural populations. The campaign was structured due to the major political, economic and social changes that took place from the 1930s, which led the country to be inserted into a context of modernization and industrialization. As a result of modernization, there was an accelerated increase in urbanization and migration from the countryside to the city, causing swelling in the cities and polarization between rural and urban areas. Internationally, with the end of World War II and the advancement of the Cold War, the US began to interfere in the dynamics of Latin American countries so that they would not allow the advancement of communist ideas. Based on a determination of UNESCO, CNER was constituted and structured in different sectors. The educational model of the Campaign should not be limited to literacy, as the goal was not to teach the rural person to read, write and count, but to change their habits and customs for others that were more compatible with the ideals of modernization advocated in the 1950s and 1960s. In order to be able to implement its education without major resistance, the Campaign constructed an image of the rural man as inert, without culture and in urgent need of change, which could be supplied by it, since it constituted itself as the great redeemer of the rural environment. However, it was possible to conclude that CNER proposed education in the countryside, but actually sought to isolate and control rural residents, avoiding them from questioning other realities.