Entre o desejável e o possível: a Escola de Aprendizes Artífices do Rio Grande do Norte: 1909-1937

Abstract

In the first decades of the twentieth century, education began to occupy more and more space in the list of the republican government responsibilities. Following the principles of nationalism into force, the effort to educate the people gained more precise contours. In this context, the school plays an extremely important role and Craftsmen Apprentices Schools (EAA), in particular, take on the challenge of educating citizens useful to the nation, among the disadvantaged fortune. This work, entitled Between Desirable and possible: the School for Craftsmen of Rio Grande do Norte: 1909-1937, deals with the organization of these schools, located in Natal, considering the period from 1909, when they were created the EAA through Decree No. 7566 of September 23, until 1937, the year Capanema by Law 378 of 13 January, implemented a reform that, among other things, changed the name of the EAA, which began to call Lyceum Industrial. Our research aimed to investigate the process of organization of the School for Craftsmen of Rio Grande do Norte (EAA-RN), showing the relationship between what was proposed in the legislation and the actions taken in their daily lives. In this perspective, we seek to understand their materiality, the incursions to the files, the sources selected, the dialogue between the understanding of the history of educational institutions and their agents with the school culture. We defend the thesis that in Rio Grande do Norte, the School for Craftsmen contributed to the consolidation of the political-ideological project of construction of Brazilian nationality, to align the republican ideals that had in speech education and work as ingredients for construction of a modern country. However, their practices are aligned to the political and social project favoring elites as practiced strict discipline of disadvantaged fortune. In the analysis of documentary sources we base the thesis on theories of Justino Magalhães (2004), the use of agents and subject notions in our research identified as servers and learners / students. Along the way, the selected sources were: laws, decrees and regulations, posts of governors of Rio Grande do Norte, Ministry of Agriculture reports, Industry and Commerce, correspondence and photographs. In an attempt to approach the institutional routine, we still use the idea of school culture (Julia, 2014) or educational practices (Chartier, 1990).