Unidade de Promoção Integral Irmã Germana: Educação não formal e assistência à pobreza em Uberaba/MG (1968-1988)

Abstract

This thesis is part of the Education area, linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education at UFU, in the research line “History and Historiography of Education” and in the subarea of “History of School Institutions”. The object of investigation is the “Unidade de Promoção Integral Irmã Germana” (UPI Irmã Germana), located in Uberaba, Minas Gerais, one of the units of Lar Fabiano de Cristo, a welfare organization founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1958. The time frame of the research covers the period from 1968, the year in which UPI Irmã Germana was created in Uberaba, to 1988, marked by the promulgation of the Federal Constitution, which introduced new guidelines for social and educational policies aimed at children and adolescents. The study addresses the genesis, trajectory, and care and educational activities developed by UPI Irmã Germana, with an emphasis on the aspects that connect it to the guidelines and values of Lar Fabiano de Cristo and the way in which these practices were adapted to the peculiarities of the city of Uberaba. Based on this, some questions were raised in order to guide the research. How was the identity of UPI Irmã Germana established in the context of Lar Fabiano de Cristo? What were the pedagogical practices and educational values adopted? How did the institution articulate social care, literacy, and professional training? How did families and society react to its care model? To answer these questions, several documentary, bibliographic, and iconographic sources were used, as well as newspapers, legislation, and the institution's history, among others. The research used bibliographic and documentary methods, establishing a dialectic between the local context and the state and national dimensions, and how representations about childhood and poverty circulated in different historical and social contexts, especially in Brazil, and how these representations shaped educational and welfare practices. The analysis of the UPI Irmã Germana was conducted based on three main categories: education and social welfare, religion and philanthropy, and childhood, poverty and social representations. This analysis supported the understanding of the actions of the UPI Irmã Germana in Uberaba, articulating them to a broader panorama of social and educational policies. Thus, the results confirmed the thesis that the Casa de Irmã Germana, as a unit of Lar Fabiano de Cristo in Uberaba, consolidated itself as a social institution that integrated a model of non-formal education and welfare. This model reflected the values and methodologies of the parent institution, based on Christian morality and the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine, while at the same time meeting local demands and engaging with the city's cultural, social and religious peculiarities. Between 1968 and 1988, the Center played a central role in serving children and families living in poverty, demonstrating a break with stigmatizing representations of childhood and poverty and consolidating humanizing practices that valued the individuals served, preserved family ties and promoted human development and social regeneration.