A educação na imprensa de Patos de Minas: entre práticas e representações (1930-1945)

Abstract

This dissertation examines educational practices and representations in the press of Patos de Minas between 1930 and 1945, a period marked by significant political, social, and cultural transformations in Brazil and by intense debates on modernization, civic education, and schooling. Through the analysis of two local newspapers—Gazeta de Patos (1929–1930) and Folha de Patos in its two phases (1936–1938 and 1941–1945)—the study seeks to understand how printed media produced, circulated, and legitimized discourses on education, revealing symbolic disputes and the expectations of different social groups. The research is grounded in the field of the Cultural History of Education, mobilizing the concepts of representations, practices, materiality, and appropriation to interpret the symbolic operations of the press and its articulation with the local context. The temporal scope allows for the identification of how national political changes interacted with the social structures of Patos de Minas, characterized by a strong rural presence, traditional elites, consolidated religious networks, and the circulation of printed materials. Within this context, the press played a central role in mediating relations between political power, educational institutions, and the population, functioning as an active device in the production of meanings related to school, childhood, civic values, and social order. The dissertation is structured around two analytical axes. The first reconstructs aspects of the social, economic, educational, and cultural context of the city and traces the trajectory of local newspapers, highlighting their connections with influential family groups, political disputes, and religious institutions, particularly the Catholic Church. The second constitutes the analytical core of the study and examines education-related articles preserved in the collections of the Documentation and Memory Center of UNIPAM (CDM) and the Museum of Patos de Minas (MUP). The analysis demonstrates that the press did not merely record events but acted as an active agent of symbolic production, legitimizing educational projects, valuing local institutions, disciplining behaviors, and constructing expectations concerning progress, morality, and authority. The study concludes that local newspapers represented education as an instrument of social ordering, moral formation, and the affirmation of Catholic and republican values, contributing to the shaping of educational perceptions and practices in the municipality. Finally, the relevance of periodicals as sources for understanding school culture in the interior of Minas Gerais is emphasized, as well as the importance of studies that articulate press, education, and cultural history to broaden understandings of the production and circulation of discourses in twentieth-century Brazil.