Material Culture as a Source for Writing the History of Schooling: A Brazilian Example

• In Event: Roundtable Session 124
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Methods for History of Education

Abstract

We started from the point that the school culture is clearly expressed in the material supports. The annalyse of this material enable an approach to the school material culture using the”indiciary paradigm”of Ginzburg. To “visualize” the past of a Brazilian Secondary School in the 1930s, we annalysed four photographs which subtitles refer to the laboratories and expose objects related to the schooling processes. Comparing the photos to the documents, we verified a difference between what was necessary to be shown in each period to prove that the school could achieve the national standards at each moment. This process raised theoretical issues related to conceptual aspects of the “material culture. Questions related to conceptual aspects of the “material culture”.

Authors

• Eurize Caldas Pessanha, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

• Fabiany de Cassia Tavares Silva, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul