Escola Professor Alfredo Dub: uma instituição filantrópica atuante na educação de surdos, Pelotas-RS (1949-1969)

Abstract

The Master's Thesis aims to discuss the historical process of institutionalization of the Professor Alfredo Dub Bilingual School, the only school specialized in the teaching of the deaf in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. Supported by the cultural perspective of the History of Institutions, with an epistemological basis based on Justino Magalhães (2004) and on the notion of school culture by Antonio Viñao Frago (2000), the research presents as a method of investigation the documentary analysis from the encounter with sources available in the private collection of the philanthropic school specialized in the education of the deaf. Thus, the general objective of this investigation focuses on the reflection on the importance of specialized education from the process of founding the institution still in its emergence within the headquarters of the humanitarian movement of the Red Cross in the city of Pelotas during the 1940s. Based on the analysis of the documentary sources, we will present as specific objectives, first, the movement of specialized education for deaf children and young people in the municipality until 1969, when Maria de Lourdes Furtado Magalhães (1918–1977), managed the special school, acting as director and teacher. It also has an analytical approach to the role played by both the Red Cross and the patronesses, the "Ladies of Society" from Pelotas, who through the creation of cultural events in favor of the "exceptional child" sponsored the school. In this exercise of institutional constitution, philanthropic practices were revealed that allowed the understanding of the context of creation and development of the institution, the changes made in the school architecture, the political mechanisms engendered in the regimental elaboration of the school, the process of professionalization and the profile of teachers and students, as well as the possible historical findings about the school culture mobilized in Alfredo Dub.