O ensino de matemática nas instituições educacionais da Província Sul-brasileira da Companhia de Jesus : um olhar a partir de intelectuais mediadores jesuítas, suas obras e práticas educativas (1845-1939)

Abstract

The present study belongs to the field of History of Education, and its purpose is to investigate the productions and daily practices established by Jesuit priests who worked as Mathematics teachers at education institutions of the South Brazilian Province. The proposition brings the question: What practices of knowledge production were adopted, in Mathematics teaching, by the Jesuit intellectuals who worked as teachers in the South Brazilian Province of the Society of Jesus? The objective of the study was to map, in the educational institutions located in the South Brazilian Province, the Jesuit priests involved with Mathematics, and to analyze their daily practices, in the course of the performance as teachers in that discipline, between 1845 and 1939, in order to comprehend the processes of knowledge production in that field. These are the custody places where the documents were found: Anchieta School, and Província do Brasil Meridional Historic Archive, both located in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; Catarinense School, in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina; Medianeira School, in Curitiba, Paraná. The method used was the Historic Document Analysis; the concepts presented are representation (CHARTIER, 2002), daily practices (CERTEAU, 1998), intellectuals (SIRINELLI, 2003; LECLERC, 2005), and mediator intellectuals (GOMES, HASEN, 2016). The research proposed a reflection on the performance of each identified teacher — Godofredo Schrader, SJ, who wrote books on the field of Geometry; Pedro Browe, SJ, who worked on the field of Algebra; Luiz Schuler, SJ, author of a book on Arithmetic with contributions of teacher Browe; Germano Dieckmann, SJ, who wrote a document on Geometry. These teachers are considered mediator intellectuals in this research, once they produced knowledge and communicated ideas connected to the social-political context of the period studied. The discussions allowed to verify that all the teachers had a degree in Philosophy and Theology — three of them studied these fields at Ignatius College, in Valkenburg, Netherlands, with Mathematics teacher priest Franz Xaver Kugler, SJ. Regarding the professional performance, Schuler was the first of the four teachers to arrive in Brazil, and worked in many education institutions in the South. The four teachers worked at Conceição School, in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, from 1904 to 1906. It was possible to trace aspects connected to the Society of Jesus in the formation of these teachers, and their productions in the fields of Algebra, Arithmetic, and Geometry. The inventory of Mathematics summaries applied during the period studied allowed to observe the methodologies of Mathematics teaching adopted, and the daily practices in school environment developed by the teachers.