Sentidos e saberes da escola rural no Vale dos Vinhedos - Bento Gonçalves/RS - (1928-1958).

Abstract

This thesis relates to the History of Education field of study. Its main goal is to examine the process of knowledge and sense formation which influenced the educational process of rural schools from 1928 to 1958. These schools belong to a set of rural communities located in the Vale dos Vinhedos district - Bento Gonçalves/RS and have been influenced by the Italian immigration which took place at the end of the nineteenth century. We also included studies that examined the beginning of schooling system during the Italian immigration from 1875. Our methodological approach used historical documentary analysis and the use of Oral History. This approach allowed us to conduct a Cultural History analysis based on theorists such as Burke (2008), Chartier (2002), and Certeau (1994). The first chapter of this thesis presents a contextualization of the locus in which the research takes place. The second chapter discusses the knowledge embedded in rural schools. Finally, it is discussed how former students and teachers perceive the schooling process exhibited in the Vale dos Vinhedos district. Our findings suggest that characteristics of Italian ethnicity influenced several aspects of knowledge and symbolic meaning formation in the rural schools. Furthermore, knowledge in these schools incorporated a set of routines in which the school dynamics is not only permeated by scientific knowledge, but also by several aspects of daily life and social culture. Consequently, scientific knowledge was initially based on pedagogical content aimed at the Italian dimension mainly because textbooks used in the schools were provided by the Italian government. Over time, however, the mastery of reading, writing, and simple mathematical calculations became key components of scientific knowledge learned in the school environment. Furthermore, cultural knowledge defined as the set of popular customs and traditions such as religious, moral and civic formation, Italian ethnic identity processes, use of the dialect among other practices inherited from the Italian tradition, constituted the set of knowledge experienced in the rural schools. This study also suggests that the Senses seen in the rural schools were closely linked to the rural community in that the school was perceived as a key social ingredient in the formation of the subject‟s identity. Authority is another sense observed in the school. More specifically, authority is seen as a social space for moral, social, and religious formation in which the teacher is perceived in a hierarchical way. Finally, our findings suggest a school with the sense of “progress” since it would help subjects to obtain personal and social development.