Normalistas da primeira turma da Escola Normal de Natal (1908-1950)

Abstract

The present research analyzes traces of the performance of male and female teachers trained in the first class of the Natal Normal School, Rio Grande do Norte, in 1910. The objective is to know the paths taken by these teachers, who worked in the process of professionalization of teaching and represented a new teacher profile for the state. We scrutinized the trajectory of formation, the professional performance spaces and the educational practices of this class, whether in the classroom or in spaces for disseminating the pedagogical ideals of the time. We base our research on the assumptions of Chartier (1990), Certeau (1982), Nóvoa (1987), Catani (2010). We searched the collections of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IHGRN); the State Public Archive (APE/RN); the National Digital Library; and the Caetano de Campos School (São Paulo). In these collections we find official documents, such as laws and decrees, Internal Rules of School Groups, messages and speeches of state governors; documents that make up school bookkeeping, such as Point Books, School Group Entry Books, Inspection Reports, Class Diaries, and Teaching Booklets and Books used in the classroom; magazines such as Pedagogium and Revista de Ensino; and newspapers A República, A Ordem, O Poti and Diário do Natal. In the first group of the Normal School of Natal twenty-seven normalists were formed. Twenty women and seven men. They are: Amphilóquio Carlos Soares da Câmara, Annita de Oliveira, Arcelina Fernandes, Áurea Fernandes Barros, Beatriz Cortez, Clara Fagundes, Ecila Pegado Cortez, Francisca Soares da Câmara, Francisco Ivo Cavalcanti, Guiomar de França, Helena Botelho, José Rodrigues Filho, Josefa Botelho, Judith de Castro Barbosa, Luiz Antônio dos Santos Lima, Luiz Correia Soares de Araújo, Manoel Tavares Guerreiro, Maria Abigail F. de Mendonça, Maria da Conceição Fagundes, Maria das Graças Pio, Maria de Belém Câmara, Maria do Carmo T. Navarro, Maria Julita de Oliveira, Maria Nathália S. da Fonseca, Olda Marinho, Severino Bezerra de Melo e Stella Vésper Ferreira Gonçalves. The study evidenced that the normalists graduated in the first group of the Natal Normal School formed from the new precepts of the primary school thought by the Republic. They worked in primary education institutions (School groups and private schools, such as teachers and principals); in government agencies (Public Education Board and State Education Department, as inspectors and general directors); in the Association of Teachers of the RN, assuming the positions of board of the institution; and in print media, with the direction and publication of books and articles in pedagogical journals and magazines. Normalists who had in common, not only the formation in the Natal Normal School, but were in the classroom, in the public and administrative organs, in the associations, in the newsrooms and in other means, producing practices, outlining conducts and mentalities. They represented teachers of morals, fulfilled the precepts and contributed to the professionalization of teaching in Rio Grande do Norte. Ways of being and doing teachers that show the history of teaching in the state.