The teaching of Geography in the Brazilian developmental period: disputes over the meaning of the Brazilian national territory

• Grant number: 21/05061-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: May 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Straforini
• Grantee: João Luiz Cuani Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project will seek to understand the discursive meanings of the national territory in disputes for hegemonization in the schooling process and, more precisely, in the teaching of Geography in the Brazilian developmental period of 1948-1964, understanding how the discourses present in the contents to be taught presented the new meanings of territory and Brazilian nation, as well as of the world should be fixed by the students. We consider it important to understand what the contents were and how they were explored, because they were linked to the culture of the moment. We understand that in the first half of the 20th century Brazil went through several modifications in its economic and social structural order. With characteristics and discourses of its agro-exporting essence, Brazil, throughout the years, maintained its condition of peripheral country. Intellectuals of the time, bothered by the Brazilian situation compared to other world powers, sought to understand what kept the country underdeveloped. Influenced by Keynesian ideologies, they sought to create economic theories that it was necessary to insert the country into capitalism with an economy of industrialization. Such thoughts were materialized in different institutions such as ECLAC, ISEB, among others. In this way, we will rely on documentary research, consulting physical and digital collections in order to retrieve materials that will bring us closer to the educational and methodological guidelines that the Geography school was inserted. We will also consider the didactic works of the period, as empirical means for the investigation. In the end, we intend to contribute to the History of School Disciplines, and to analyze, in the light of Laclau's discourse theory, the spatial practices of Geography teaching linked to the political-economic discourse of developmentalism.