O Gaúcho, a Dominação Masculina e a Educação na Fronteira Sul-Riograndense: o Passado no Presente

Abstract

This paper intends to analyse some effects of male dominance on the borderline area between Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay upon the educational processes and professional carriers of such student-teachers who were attending the Program for Teacher Formation on the Job in the area of Pedagogy sponsored by the Universidade da Região da Campanha (Southernmost Plains Area University)/URCAMP/Bagé/RS, during the month of July 2003. These subjects were either married or engaged in a stable marital-like union and they are expected to build the present day local History of Education. It is comon knowledge that male dominance is inherited from the patriarchal family unit and the androcentric society that significantly influenced the formation of the gaucho society all along the XIXth Century; such a domination process was extended throughout the XXth Century until it began to peter out during the last decades. However, in the borderline area between southern Rio Grande do Sul and northern Uruguay it still makes its presence shown in the first years of the XXIst Century, due to this area peculiarities and by means of the Gaucho myth perpetuation. Gender relationships (particularly those happening within domestic confines) and their effects upon the lives of such female teachers who actually build present day regional History of Education were analysed. This situation is most evident in the country districts, although it is still present in urban areas, especially in the borderline small to middle-size counties. The methodology employed was embased upon the application of open and closed questionnaires, semi-structured interviews for recording subjects memories, along with a reaction-provoking visual technique. Research focal points were the manifestation of Rio Grande do Sul State native imagery, the social build-up of the gaucho culture, and male dominance, along with such interfaces that were built toward participants lives and the historical development of their trajectories on the History of Education area. Research adopted a quanti-qualitative approach, biased toward the qualitative side and data was analysed in a descriptive way. The urgent need for further studies on the gender relationships on Academe to bolster up organized resistance movements leading to the writing of a new local History of Education was perceived.