Gramsci and education: a study based on the Prison Notebooks

• Grant number: 11/12077-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: November 16, 2011
• End date: February 13, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Rene Jose Trentin Silveira
• Grantee: Rene Jose Trentin Silveira
• Host Investigator: Angelo Dorsi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO), Italy

Abstract

The central aim of this project is to investigate the gramscian conception of education in order to identify elements that might characterize a gramscian-inspired form of pedagogy and its implications for the organization both of the school and the teaching work. In principle they should refer to aspects like: the relations between conformism and spontaneity; the distinction between an active school and a creative one; the unitarian school; the relation between instruction and education; quantity versus quality; education and democracy; the teacher-learner relationship; and the school as a space enabling contact between intellectuals and the "simple" people; among others. The project takes the form of a bibliographic research embracing Notebooks 1, 4, 12 and 22 of Antonio Gramsci's "Prison Notebooks", where most of that author's references and discussions concerning education can be found. The study method consists of an analytical, critical, systematic reading of these works, mediated by discussions with the tutoring professor to ensure an adequate comprehension and appropriation of gramscian concepts, categories and positions. A complementary objective is to carry out an initial review of Gramsci's other writings on education, especially among those referred to as the "youthful writings", which will be the object of a future study. It is hoped eventually to organize a collection of texts to be translated for publication in Brazil. (AU)