FERNANDO DE AZEVEDO E O CONCEITO DE EDUCAÇÃO PÚBLICA NO BRASIL

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand the concept of public education in the interpretation of Fernando de Azevedo (1894-1971) from the History of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte), by the historian Reinhart Koselleck, which seeks to historicize relevant concepts from a social and politician point of view, looking for the generation of interpreters who have read their meanings over time. In this sense, it is important to consider the ruptures, the permanences and the contexts of its use. As regards sources, the following were elected: the Condorcet Report ([1792] 2004); the Plan and the decree of the national education from Le Peletier ([1793] 2018), the Law of 1881 that established the gratuitousness and the law of 1882 that promulgated the obligatory and the secularity in the public schools, instituted by the Minister of Education Jules Ferry in Third Republic (1870-1914). As for the works of Azevedo, the Manifest of the Pioneers of New Education (1932), Education at the Crossroads ([1929] 1960), Education between Two Worlds (1958), The Brazilian Culture ([1943] 1963), the manual Sociology educational ([1940] 1958) and the letters exchanged between Azevedo and the renovators (1920-1930). From the documentary corpus, it was noticed that Fernando de Azevedo held positions of social expressivity in Brazil, devoted himself to literature, sociology, physical education, journalism and, fundamentally, education. As a member of the intellectual elite of the country, he promoted various campaigns, manifests, educational reforms, as well as the Inquiry of 1926, the Reformation of 1927, the writing of the Manifests of 1932 and 1959, and the founding of the University of São Paulo in 1934. The intellectual's view was associated with discussions about public education, European and American countries, particularly France, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this way, he criticized Brazilian education when the country was still a colony of Portugal, claiming that education was relegated to a minority, demarcated by the lack of articulation and continuity between the levels of primary, secondary, vocational and higher education. The educator postulated a new semantics of public education, based on the principles of secularism, gratuitousness, compulsion, coeducation of the sexes and the responsibility of the State in educational matters, having as horizon of expectations the nation developed and tuned to the ideals of solidarity, equality and fraternity of countries considered civilized. Such acceptance of the concept of public education was not restricted to the school space, because in the 1927 Reform the educator included such principles in the organization of public schools. In addition, he argued that public content should include the teaching of reading, writing, mathematics, gymnastics, history and geography of Brazil, civic and moral education, "content of expression", from the tripod: music, theater, dance and courses vocational training aimed at the preparation of young people in accordance with the skills, attributes and sexual differentiations required by social needs. In relation to teacher training, Azevedo understood that it would need to be raised in a higher level, based on scientific research and without any pillar of religiosity, thus marking dissonances and clashes with the group of Catholic intellectuals regarding the semantics of the concept of public education in Brazil.