A atuação de José Augusto Bezerra de Medeiros em projetos nacionais de educação (1915-1921): trajetória e memória

Abstract

This work aimed to reconstruct the trajectory of José Augusto Bezerra de Medeiros (1884-1971) in national education projects between 1915-1921. It is understood that this trajectory had three moments. At first, the character made education as his goal of life, presenting himself to the public opinion as a specialist in pedagogical subjects and as a defender of education. In the second moment, we can perceive their insertion strategies, as well as their performance in national education projects. The performance in question was marked by the tensions between his personal yearnings for the country's education and the limits imposed by other members of these projects on his claims. From these tensions, their projects were negotiated, accommodated and underwent modifications. The third moment concerns an extension of the trajectory analyzed. This is the process of building the memory of José Augusto as an educational pioneer based on certain images created during his performance in national education projects. It was analyzed how he, as well as his relatives and friends, contributed to this extension that guaranteed him the position of hero of brazilian education. The periodization proposed takes into account José Augusto's entry into the Câmara dos Deputados, a moment that, according to his words, he began to dedicate himself to the mental and moral construction of the nation (PEREIRA, 1982; p-243) and his participation in the Conferência Interestadual de Ensino Primário (1921), the last national education project that he attended. In general terms, the documentary corpus mobilized in this research is composed of the production of the character - speeches and parliamentary projects - periodicals, books, association programs, institutional minutes and government reports. From a theoretical and methodological point of view, the work is mainly based on the concepts of network of functions (ELIAS, 1994), framing of memory and underground memory (POLLACK, 1989) and the notion of culture (GINZBURG, 2006).