Gestão Maria Angélica de Castro: apropriação das idéias sobre a Escola nova no território federal do Acre (1946/1951)

Abstract

This thesis presents as theme the New School in Acre. To study this topic, the objective was to check up how the appropriation of ideas process has taken over about the New School during the period when Acre was a Federal Territory, and Maria Angélica de Castro was in charge of the Department of Education and Culture (DEC). Born in Minas Gerais, she was a competent educator who carried out her studies in the Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Minas Gerais, and had worked with Helena Antipoff in the Laboratory for Education Psychology, in the Education Office in Belo Horizonte since the beginning of 1946; she was also very respected due to her commitment and dedication the Education in the state of Minas Gerais, and because of this she was invited by the Governor of Acre, José Guiomard dos Santos to be the head of DEC. Considered by the local historiography as the manager who had brought the modernity to Acre, this governor considered that Maria Angelicas work would represent the possibility to obtain even in Education the betterments he had reached in several sectors like health and public services. And, in Education, this modernity would be noticed by the application of what was more updated in teaching, as a trend in countrys southern states, once these changes had already been implanted some years ago. Data collection used in this work was based on documental analysis and interviews with teachers and students who had had the opportunity to live along during that period under survey. From this analysis, results with the implantation of ideas defended by the New School were: teachers formation toward these interests, a fundamental condition to the implantation of an efficient pedagogic work; a change in the students perception provided by the school, consequently giving value to the children, recognized now as a creative beings, not as a passive ones anymore, and the central element to the educational process; the construction of adequate places for childrens education, replacing many inappropriate buildings where many schools were used to function, with lacking in healthy and air-flow conditions; usage of active method in the normal and primary education, which searched for more participation and interest of children in the teaching-learning process. To carry out these changes, Maria Angélica established a series of management actions which proved to interfere in the pedagogic outcomes. Among the most important ones, some are: organization of the primary and child learning, setting the Primary School Rules which contained the New Schools Principles; organization of the Normal School, setting the Normal School Rules covering guidelines from the New School; granting of scholarships to teachers to study in the Federal Capital, mainly for those comprehending DECs staff; regularization of the schools inspection activity, which was meant to act as a supporting and inspecting service of and to the educational measures being implanted onwards. The search has shown then that, with all these started efforts, it is possible to affirm that, considering those conditions, indeed, there has been in Acre an appropriation of the New Schools principles, which manifested principally during Maria Angélicas ruling period in the Department of Education and Culture.