Missão de estudos ao Uruguai: mudanças no sistema de ensino do Rio Grande do Sul (1913-1927)

Abstract

This research is aimed at the study mission in Uruguay, in the years 1913 and 1914, which was organized by the southern Brazilian state authorities with the purpose of qualifying and (re)organizing the public education system of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). This was held in two moments: first, in 1913, a group composed of two male and four female teachers stayed for three months in Montevideo to study everything that was related to public education; secondly, in 1914, a group of six female teachers went to improve their studies in the neighboring country, three of which were enrolled with funding from the Uruguayan government at the Instituto Nacional de Señoritas [National Institute for Ladies] while the other three practiced the teaching methods taught at the Normal School and at the Application School attached to it. Organizing pedagogical missions during this period was already somewhat consolidated, since it represented the possibility of inspiring and legitimizing changes in order to qualify the educational contexts of missioners. The research comprised a large documentary corpus constituted mainly by sources from 1913 to 1927, and was organized into four groups. The first one is made up of official documents (materials from the Brazilian State of RS such as the Reports of the Office of the Interior and Exterior Affairs, the Messages sent by the President of the State to the Legislative Assembly, and the Travel Report written by the group of teacher who integrated the mission of 1913, and Uruguayan sources such as the Message of Abel J. Pérez and the Annals of Primary Instruction). The second group contemplates the legislation of RS (Decrees 1906, 1909, 1916, and 1927). The third one is composed of journalistic periodicals; two of them from RS – A Federação [The Federation] and Correio do Povo [People’s Courier] – and one from Uruguay – El Dia [The Day]. And the fourth group includes interviews with the descendants of the teachers who participated in the educational mission to Uruguay, as well as documents of different typologies safeguarded in their private archives. The documentary analysis verified that the choice of Uruguay as a possibility for improvement was made due to a set of elements: the Uruguayan distinction; the political, cultural and economic relations established between the two territories; the geographic location of the neighboring country; the language; and the reduced financial investment for the mission. Results also found that the study mission has inspired and legitimized changes, especially with regard to didactic-pedagogical aspects and the school material culture of Primary Education, as well as in the organization of teacher training and in putting into circulation a new conception for the teaching of reading and writing by the use of the textbook Queres Ler?.