A geografia das províncias/estados do Brasil para as escolas primárias entre as décadas de 1860 e 1920: situando o caso de Pernambuco

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the studies anchored in the line of the History of School Geography in Brazil, in a special way, with those that cover, chronologically, the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, aiming to know the elements that incited and subsidized the establishment of the Geography of the provinces/states of Brazil, within the scope of primary schools, between the 1860s and 1820s, as well as specifically placing this feat in the context of Pernambuco. The recurrent designs designed especially around the studies presented, as well as our research and studies, were based on the perspective of the studies carried out by Chervel (1990), Goodson (1997), Viñao Frago (2008) and Júlia (2001; 2002). The path taken in the construction of the research began to be outlined from the moment when the most important documents with the provisions relating to the establishment of the teaching of Local Geography in schools at the time were established. Among the analyzed sources, we focus on textbooks published in order to teach Geography, understanding them as an object of intersection between prescriptions and practices, therefore, an expression of school culture; which gives it an important role in the representation in the period of knowledge and in the side of other school subjects, as the educational legislation. We recognize that the emergence of the movement in favor of teaching local Geography in the primary school programs, during the period studied, is simultaneously constituted under the local and national scales, which complement each other as an arrangement that accommodates local interests allied to national projects. In this sense, we talk about the production of Geography textbooks in the provinces/states, having as a background educational reforms and ideas around the construction of local patriotism. Under this approach, we present, from the context of Pernambuco, a set of normative devices with prescriptions for the teaching of Geography in the province and three textbooks prepared for this purpose. From the analysis focused on the books, we recognize the expression given to themes and knowledge related to the dissemination of the natural potential of the territory and history of Pernambuco, with a view to building a local patriotism, associated with nationalist ideas. Protecting local singularities, we consider that subjects and/or institutions engaged in the task of producing geographical knowledge within the provinces, driven by a feeling of local patriotism and based on methodological debates, resorted to (school) Geography to disseminate, to value and enhance their territories via school, from the textbooks of this discipline, prepared for the teaching of this discipline in the scope of primary schools.