As representações sobre a aritmética e seu ensino veiculadas na Revista do Ensino de Minas Gerais (1925-1940)

Abstract

This research aimed to identify and analyze the representations about arithmetic and its teaching conveyed by the Revista do Ensino de Minas Gerais (RE), throughout the first phase of its life cycle - 1925 to 1940. RE circulated between 1925 and 1971, with the purpose of training teachers in Minas Gerais in accordance with the pedagogical precepts in force at various times during this long period, being considered, therefore, an official publication of extreme importance for the history of education in Minas Gerais from the methodological point of view, we built a history of the Journal, analyze some contextual and normative aspects of the educational field in Minas Gerais and surveyed all the texts of the RE where references to arithmetic and its teaching were found during the research reference period. The research used as theoretical foundation the notion of representation of the cultural historian Roger Chartier. After identifying the existence of references to mathematics or its teaching in 376 texts of the Journal, we observed that 166 of them focus specifically on arithmetic or its teaching. We dedicate ourselves, then, to the reading and analysis of the latter for the survey and study of representations. We proposed the organization of the representations identified in four categories: 1) representations about arithmetic; 2) representations about the role of arithmetic teaching in primary school; 3) representations about theoretical and methodological approaches to the teaching and learning of arithmetic; 4) representations about teacher training and other education professionals regarding arithmetic and its teaching found that, even with certain variations, some of the most frequent representations of arithmetic and its teaching published in the Revista do Ensino in its first phase of circulation are, to some extent, in line with the discourse circulating in other Brazilian journals and with official legislation regarding the primary education of arithmetic of Minas Gerais in the focused period. These approaches are mainly noted in relation to the following representations: considerations on the use and usefulness of arithmetic in practical life; understandings of the fundamental arithmetic knowledge that should be focused on primary education; teaching arithmetic intuitively or by the intuitive method; use of didactic-pedagogical resources for the teaching and learning of arithmetic; problem solving by mobilizing contexts of practical life, centers of interest and excursions; mobilization of arithmetic in tests of intellectual capacity and school performance; courses and lectures for teachers and other teaching professionals involving arithmetic; recommendations or criticisms of books involving arithmetic for the teacher.