Padre José Daniel e a história da educação em Vicentina-MT/MS (1955-1978): entre arquivos e memórias

Abstract

This doctoral research was conducted within the Graduate Program in Education, in the Research Line History of Education, Memory, and Society, at the Federal University of Grande Dourados [UFGD], as part of the Research Group Education and Civilizing Process [GPEPC]. Grounded in the field of the History of Education, the study focuses on school education in the municipality of Vicentina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The objective of the research was to analyze, through the figure of the priest and educator José Daniel, the history and memory of education and the development of formal schooling in Vicentina, guided by the following research question: How did Father José Daniel conduct school education in the city of Vicentina between 1955 and 1978? The announced time frame is justified, respectively, by the year of the priest’s arrival in Vicentina and by the final year of his work in the municipality, due to his death. Considering the object of investigation, the research problem unfolded into the following questions: How was school education constituted and developed in Vicentina through Father José Daniel’s work? How were educational institutions structured and organized? And how did the selection and training of teachers occur? The study adopted a documentary and bibliographic approach and employed document analysis and semi-structured interviews based on thematic oral history as data collection procedures. Documents were collected from institutional archives, including documentation centers, schools, parish secretariats, and personal archives. In addition, interviews were conducted with four retired female teachers and three retired male teachers who had worked as students and educators under Father José Daniel’s leadership in Vicentina. Data analysis was grounded in Norbert Elias’s theory (1897 1990), particularly the concepts of civility, figuration, and power. The findings confirm the thesis that education in Vicentina was fundamentally based on Catholicism, represented by Father José Daniel’s work during the period in which schools were under the Church’s supervision. This foundation was also reflected in the principles of Christian education present in the training of teachers and students, notably discipline, morality, control and self-control of emotions, and moderation of conduct, aimed at the civilizing formation of individuals.