Círculos de cultura no Rio Grande do Sul : um movimento de alfabetização realizado a partir de Paulo Freire (1963-1964)

Abstract

The present thesis, linked to the research area of History and Philosophy of Education of the Graduate Program at the University of Caxias do Sul, aimed at analyzing the historical context and the constitution of culture circles in Rio Grande do Sul mediated by the presence of Paulo Freire (and from there) between the years 1963 and 1964. The methodology used was the historical documentary analysis of newspapers such as Correio do Povo, Jornal do Dia, and Diário de Notícias, as well as the analysis of interviews, which were carried out using the Oral History methodology. Through the theoretical support of the History of Education and Cultural History, I mobilize concepts such as representation, cultural mediators, mediating intellectuals, and literacy. The categories constructed with the analysis were: (i) mobilization (which I expressed as the organization and realization of the training course for debate coordinators, held in Porto Alegre), (ii) action (from which I observed the practices of culture circles carried out in the State) and (iii) the interruption and silencing (occurred after the beginning of the civil-military regime). Initially, I accomplished a theoretical study (i) to know historical aspects of education in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul in the 1950s and 1960s, (ii) to deepen the centraltheme of the thesis through authors who reflect on it, in addition to Paulo Freire himself and (iii) to investigate the theoretical-methodological framework. Having followed this research path, the thesis that I defend with this narrative is that between the years 1963 and early 1964, in the context of the effervescence of social movements and popular culture focused on Education, in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul, some people from that state moved around the country to get to know and appropriate themselves of the cultural circles that established how the literacy program based on and proposed by Paulo Freire was organized, which started to be propagated nationally. Subsequently, these people - teachers, but primarily university and high school students, characterized here as mediating intellectuals - guided by the State Department of Education and Culture, spread out Freires ideals for literacy through their sociability network in Porto Alegre (the state capital) and some other cities in the interior of the state, constituting representations and finding ways of putting them into practice. These new representations were transcribed in the form of dissemination and execution of training for debate coordinators, initially based in Porto Alegre and with the pontual presence of Paulo Freire - but also programmed in other cities in the interior, from intellectual mediators of the State - as well as in the form of pilot experiments carried out, which confirm the effectiveness of culture circles in Rio Grande do Sul before the civil-military regime. When this happened, the most widespread representations about the literacy program became its criticisms, which ended up generating its silencing. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]