Representações sobre etnicidade e cultura escolar nas antigas colônias de imigração italiana do nordeste do Rio Grande do Sul : (1905-1950)

Abstract

The research studies the dynamics of schooling culture and of ethnicity among Italian immigrants and their descendants in the Old Colonies of the Italian Immigration in the Northeast of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during the decades of the 50th Century. As a central axis of investigation, the work analyzes the representations about schooling culture and education practices of Italian immigrants and their descendants, as well as possible associations with ethnicity, from information in the memories and reports of teachers who taught in the Old Colonies during the period of study, and from community leaders of the region. The analyzed reports recall the experiences of being a student and being a teacher. Under the Cultural History point of view, and employing Spoken History as methodology, the research comprises questions as the different kinds of schools at the time, the used materials, organization of school time and space, different ways to teach and learn, as well as relations in the ethnic identity process, attempting to understand the meanings attributed to the educational practice through the reports of the interviewed teachers and their experiences and ways to act as apprentice and instructor in the context of the communities. The work concludes that, although the Brazilian Government attempts to silence ethnic culture, it is possible to notice in the reports the importance of the school in the life of the communities and in the diffusion/maintenance of an Italian-Brazilian identity. Finally, the study emphasizes the need to think about cultural diversity interrelated with schooling in Brazil.