Memórias de ex-alunos(as) do internato da Escola Normal Evangélica em São Leopoldo/RS : práticas cotidianas e cultura escolar (1950-1966)

Abstract

This study investigates everyday practices and analyzes the representations about the school culture of an evangelical boarding school between 1950 and 1966. Its object of study is the teacher training school called Escola Normal Evangélica (ENE) which was located in the city of São Leopoldo/RS at that time. The Escola Normal school continued the activities initiated by the teacher training seminary called Seminário Evangélico de Formação de Professores, founded in 1909 in the city of Taquari/RS. After changes of regions, the institution was settled in the city of São Leopoldo in 1926, where it remained until 1966, when it was transferred to the city of Ivoti/RS, where it is currently operating. Due to the period of nationalization, the Seminary ended its activities in the year of 1939, restarting them only in 1950 under the name of Escola Normal Evangélica. In this way, the time frame of this investigation encompasses the period of the school’s reopening in the city of São Leopoldo until the year of its relocation. The study is in the field of History of Education and its theoretical framework is the Cultural History. Its aim is to identify, describe and analyze the representations about the school culture established in this institution, through the memory of students who studied in this school during the time frame selected. For this purpose, the methodology used was the Oral History, which understands the memory as a document. The documentation for analysis was basically the memory narratives of the six students interviewed. Besides the memories, there were also some editions of the student newspaper "O Arauto" and iconographic documents provided by the interviewees. The narratives were analyzed based on the studies of Maurice Halbwachs, Roger Chartier, Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault. It was possible to understand that the representations that were present in the memories of these six individuals recompose the time and space of the boarding school as a house and a large family. It was, according to them, a period of study and learning, building bonds with classmates and teachers in a relationship of fraternity and fellowship. The recalled practices emphasized activities that involved mind, body, art, and faith. Sport, music and daily meditations were also outstanding practices. The walks around the square named Praça do Imigrante, going to the cinema, and the representation of a controlled freedom were also identified in the remembrances. Besides, it was possible to observe the different strategies elaborated by the students as a way of resistance to the established norm. Such representations thus encompass the school culture generated in this educational institution.