Ciências no currículo do curso normal rural da vila de Santa Izabel, Estado do Pará (1931- 1936)

Abstract

This research aims to shed light on a little-explored aspect of the interface between the History of Science and Education in the Amazon: the inclusion of science in school institutions in the interior of the state of Pará. The object of the research is the Rural Normal Course, established at the Antônio Lemos College, located in Santa Izabel do Pará, in 1931. This institution, a historical heritage site, still draws attention today due to its monumental architecture, especially if we consider the contrast with the town which, at the time it was created, was an agricultural center in the northeast of Pará. The course was aimed at training elementary school teachers to work in schools located in rural areas of the state, which was in line with the movement for the ruralization of education in Brazil, which was expanding at the time. With this in mind, our aim was to analyze the conditions that made it possible for science to be included in the syllabus of the Rural Normal Course, created in 1931. To achieve this, the research was guided by the following questions: how did these sciences and the course that housed them find the conditions to become viable in the local culture? What were these sciences, how were they represented and how were they situated in relation to the other subjects within the teaching programs adopted? The concept of culture and representation coined by Hall (2016) was fundamental to the analysis of historiographical sources, such as government decrees and regulations, teaching programs and other discourses that became part of local culture. These primary sources were consulted in the archives available in the collections of the Hemeroteca and Rare Works Section of the Arthur Vianna Library and in the collection of the Public Archives of the State of Pará, both located in the city of Belém-PA. Among these representations were those calling for the implementation of a rural education oriented towards the practice of agriculture that would be efficient, intensive and, at the same time, with a deep appreciation for the land and nature, in order to deal with the problem of the rural exodus faced at the time. The scientific subjects that were adopted in the program of the Santa Izabel Rural Normal Course were: Natural Sciences, in 1931 and Physical and Natural Sciences, in 1934.