Um Rio Grande do Norte a ser ensinado: a trajetória do ensino de História do Rio Grande do Norte durante a Primeira República (1908-1925)

Abstract

This present study aims to build the path of the teaching of History in the State of Rio Grande do Norte during the established chronological range from 1908 to 1925, when Alberto Maranhão, state governor, approved Decree No 178 of April 29, 1908, that enabled Francisco Pinto de Abreu to promote the primary education reform and institute the so-called “Grupos Escolares” (“School Groups”) in the state, that were the first school institutions to provide the teaching of History of the State of Rio Grande do Norte in its school programme, as well 1908 was the year of indication of the first history books in the Rio Grande do Norte School Groups. The goal is to understand how the subject was taught in the schools and how it acted in the formation of the new citizens according to the republican political thinking. For this purpose, this work seeks to identify the main contents, the production of didactic material, and the reception of a history of Rio Grande do Norte by both teachers and primary school students. To this end, the consulted sources were Regimentos Internos dos Grupos Escolares e das Escolas Isoladas do Rio Grande do Norte; the Falas dos Governadores do Estado; the Relatórios dos Diretores da Instrução Pública e do Departamento de Educação; general and state education laws; history books of Rio Grande do Norte; the newspapers A República and A Imprensa; From a conceptual point of view, the work is anchored, among others, in the concepts of school culture, curriculum and subject, proposed by Dominique Julia, Ivor Goodson and André Chervel, respectively. Such concepts will be operationalized in order to understand the logic that ensured the institution and permanence of this subject in the school curriculum during this period. As for the method, the study aims to answer three questions: how the first concerns arose in building a history of Rio Grande do Norte for primary and secondary education; how the subject should be taught; and how the state was approached in the books indicated by the Department of Education.