Grupo Escolar Joaquim Nabuco – história e práticas educativas (Taipu/Rio Grande do Norte, 1919-1940)

Abstract

The first decades of the twentieth century witnessed the attempt to reorganize the Brazilian primary school, with the school as one of the main propagators of republican values. In this context, the School Groups were shaped like popular education project for the spread of access to reading and writing, intended requirement by the Republic in Brazil. In Rio Grande do Norte, the process of creation and expansion of this mode of primary school began with the reform of Public Education, law No. 284, 30 November 1909. Among the School Groups of Rio Grande do Norte, we analyze the history and the educational practices the School Group Joaquim Nabuco, located in Taipu, between 1919 and 1940, a period that comprises its inception and the first two decades of operation and consolidation of the institution. We specify in this study the educational practices of teachers Josefa Botelho and Helena Botelho, first teachers to act in this institution. Methodologically we base our study on the cultural history by allowing also the reflection on historical events and understanding how a particular social reality is constructed. We research in the collections of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IHGRN); State Public Archive (APE/RN); the Caetano de Campos School (São Paulo) and the State School Joaquim Nabuco, current nomenclature of the School Group searched. In these collections, we dialogue with the Laws, Decrees of the Government, Reports and Government posts, newspapers, magazines, class diaries, booklets and textbooks. We have analyzed the sources in dialogue with authors such as Chartier (1990), which allows the interface with practice and representation of stakeholders, and Morais (2002; 2006), with different ways to settle the argument with the sources and think about the appropriation of reading and writing from the contextual objects. The construction of the School Group Joaquim Nabuco was important to Taipu then, being the first city of the educational institution, allowed children access to public education. The teachers Helena Botelho and Josefa Botelho, formed by the first group of the Normal School of Natal in 1910, contributed significantly to the operation and consolidation of the Group. Their educational practices reflect current ideas about literacy and reading and writing education in this period. They indicated the ways of doing and the specific action in primary school in Rio Grande do Norte.