Discussions about rural education in Brazil and the pedagogical practice of Noêmia Saraiva de Mattos Cruz in the Rural School Group of Butantan (1932-1943)

Author(s)

Ariadne Lopes Ecar

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Educação (FE/SBD)
• Defense date: 2017-05-19

Examining board members

Diana Goncalves Vidal; Rachel Duarte Abdala; Zeila de Brito Fabri Demartini; Andre Mota; Maria Angela Borges Salvadori

• Advisor: Diana Goncalves Vidal

Abstract

In the beginning of the first republican period in Brazil, there were movements for the settlement of the individual to the land, based mainly on the reflections of Alberto Torres, as well as it was intended to build an image of the country as \"eminently agricultural\". In this context, agricultural, regional and rural were concepts taken as synonyms. In the debates held in educational circles there were discussions about the feasibility of the specialization of schools, whether it should be rural or regional, since there was an understanding that agricultural education would be aimed at the professional field. Rural or regional followers saw education for the work as the end of primary schools in rural areas, associated with hygienism and nationalism, ways of developing the country. The reforms carried out in the 1920s problematized the regional and the rural, making room for fierce disputes over the most effective teaching for rural schools. In 1932, the Society of Friends of Alberto Torres was created, an entity of national scope that sought to popularize Alberto Torre\'s thinking, and in 1935, it was created Society Luiz Pereira Barreto in São Paulo, with the purpose of disseminating knowledge of teaching, agriculture, health and domestic economy to the population of the interior. In 1932, the Directorate of Education of the State of Sao Paulo had as director Sud Mennucci, an avid defender of rural education, who invited Noêmia Saraiva de Mattos Cruz to start a rural pedagogical practice in the School Group that operated inside the Butantan Institute, in the São Paulo homonymous district. Noêmia Cruz graduated from the Normal School of Praça da República, and worked at the Pedreira School Group in the 1910s. In 1920 resigned and in 1932 returned to exercise the profession. When he joined the Butantan School Group, he attended rural courses in the Agriculture Department, the Agricultural Defense Biological Institute, the Animal Industry Board, the Cantareira Forestry Department, the Luiz de Queiroz Agricultural School, the Campinas Agronomy Institute and the Experimental Farm Santa Elisa, which enabled her to work with sericulture, beekeeping, poultry, rabbits, horticulture (including crops and greenhouse plants), forestry, gardening and pomiculture). Noêmia Cruz created an Agricultural Club in the Rural School Group, an association of students whose aim was to teach rural cultures in order to create a bond with the land. The production of the Agricultural Club was used in the meals offered by the school, the surplus sold and the amount was used to assist the students. The School Group became rural definitively by Decree number 6.047, in 1933, and was reorganized by Decree number 7.268 in 1935. Based on active education, Noêmia Cruz articulated the official teaching program with rural activities, which were recorded in notebooks, newspapers, books of life and photographs. Her proposal was widely propagated in Brazil as a model of rural education. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/04238-4 - Ruralists practices of Rural School Group Butantan (1930-1940)
• Grantee: Ariadne Lopes Ecar
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate