Conference Agenda

Over the past 20 years, ‘transnational knowledge circulation’ has become a powerful theoretical construct for use by historians of education seeking to identify, characterise, and account for the nature of ideas and practices operating in one constituency that had their origins elsewhere. Inspired by comparative educationalists who wished to break out of the hegemony of globalisation critiques in their own field of research and to bring a new historical dimension to it, a corpus of work by historians of education has emerged that indicate new ways of viewing the transmission of ideas in intellectual and education domains that challenges and problematises dominant narratives (Schriewer and Martinez, 2004; Curthoys and Lake, 2005; Collins and Allender, 2013; Miethe and Weifs, 2020; Hammar and Ostling, 2021). In the Irish context until recently, the notion of policy travelling across national boundaries, both to and from Ireland, through knowledge circulation, have been largely absent from scholarly accounts (Kelly and Hegarty, 2013). This paper presents the authors’ first step in redressing this gap in understanding within the history of Irish education by exploring answers to the following three research questions: How did the contact that led to the circulation of rationally founded knowledge regarding formal education from the late nineteenth century to recent times come about in Ireland and what interests guided it? How did the circulation take place? What eventuated as a result of the national and local discourses that took place? The paper begins with a brief account of the concept of knowledge circulation, followed by the theoretical and methodological approach that underpin the research. The substantive focus of the paper is on the work of The Commission on Manual and Practical Instruction (CMPI) conducted between 1896 and 1898, with the aim of reforming practices in Irish national (primary) schools (Commission on Manual and Practical instruction, 1898). Within this, a key emphasis is placed on exploring the processes and impact of transnational knowledge circulation on the framing of the Commission’s report. It explores the terms of reference of the Commission and its modus operandi in eliciting evidence from a wide range of international expert education witnesses, both those with the British Empire but also from a range of continental European countries and the United States. We then move to explore the impact of the Commission’s report, particularly its elements that focus on transnational educational ideas, in informing the subsequent Revised Programme for Schools (Commissioners of National Education, 1902) enacted from 1900 to 1922 across Ireland. Based on the analysis, the paper argues that while transnational knowledge circulation had influenced thinking and practice on education in Ireland to various minor degrees previously, the developments that took place in relation to the CMPI resulted, for the first time, in such knowledge from countries other than those in the British Empire having an influence nationally that was substantial, and an impact that was widespread.

As Katherine Verdery stated, “Cold War affected both public perceptions and intellectual life”, concluded in different ways how we see the mental geographies between East and West, North and South (1996, 330). Complex forms and interactions of coloniality, a Western-centric viewpoint dominate this kind of knowledge production in the (post)socialist countries of Central-Eastern Europe (Silova, Millei & Piattoeva, 2017). My presentation is trying to reflect on this process, by using the category of Third World, which was a key idea in the interpretation of global developments and the struggle between the two Super Powers, from creating the Iron Curtain in Europe (late 1940s) to the regime changes and collapse of the one-party state socialism here (1989). My research is functioning on two levels: the first is a visual study, based on my doctoral dissertation. In this, I analyzed the photographic corpus of the Hungarian educational journals in the 1960s: altogether 5371 items constitute this collection, including 158 photos about the non-European Third World (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). This is the broader context, where the dominant socialist view, these images and titles spoke about internationalism, solidarity, and the fight against imperialism. Progression and modernization are closely related to the leftist political ideologies here, and the socialist countries played the role of the helping brother in this case (Katsakioris, 2022). The Subalterns could not speak in their own voices (Spivak, 1994), because the images usually suggested the views and opinions of the experts from the developed World (Cutajar, 2008). The peculiarities of the local people were lost in this situation and assimilated to the Socialist (or to the Western) bloc. The second approach (and second part of the title) focuses on the Hungarian knowledge of Brazilian education in the state socialist period, using the Arcanum database, a robust platform of digitized cultural content (https://www.arcanum.com/en/). I gathered several articles, news, and reports about the country, which belongs to the Third World. The documents mostly tell the story of liberation, pedagogy of the oppressed, introducing Paulo Freire (2005) to the Hungarian audience. This kind of critical pedagogy (Gruenewald, 2003) was mostly one-sided in the Hungarian discourses since these thoughts targeted only the faults of the capitalist educational system and did not apply to the deficiencies of the existing socialism. Some prominent figures of the Hungarian emigration could express their views about Brazil as well, like a land of hope and possibilities: for example, the famous Hungarian writer, translator, and philologist, Paulo Rónai. He was the head of the French Department at the Federal High School in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and after 25 years of his expatriation, Rónai could visit his home country in 1965. Visual and verbal interpretations are embedded in the same pedagogical journals, which makes a connection between the two research concepts. Images are both verbal and visual in my investigation, speaking maybe more about our feelings and attitudes than the others, with whom they were associated.

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, the physician and then Minister of Agriculture of the Italian government, Guido Bacelli, stimulated and encouraged, as part of the Italian pedagogical policy, the implementation of small agricultural spaces called campicello (small field or school gardens) intended for the practical and educational activities of students in Italian primary schools. Several Italian didactic works and some historiographical sources guide and report the implementation of this practice in these schools. In particular, I would like to highlight the winning work of the competition coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction based on the public notice issued on September 20, 1900, and which should meet the criterion of being a manual that dealt with practical instructions to rural teachers on the implementation and management of a school garden. The work, authored by E. Azimonti and C. Campi, entitled Il Campicello Scolastico – Impianto e Coltivazione. Manuale di Agricoltura pratica per i maestri, was published in 1903 by Casa Editora Ulrico Hoepli and the copy used for the research was consulted at the MUB Specialized Library, in Treviso, Italy, in 2023. From the perspective of Cultural History and from the perspective of Transnational History, this work was analyzed in terms of physical characteristics, contents, and particularities of context and use. It was observed, for example, that the use of the campicello was indicated as a complementary pedagogical activity to the classroom, both for the teaching of agricultural sciences and for practical activities in rural primary schools, as a way to stimulate the modernization of agricultural practices in farming families. Another document used for this research was the report sent by Italian professor Luigi Petrocchi, who worked as a school inspector in Italian schools subsidized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rio Grande do Sul. In the original document, consulted in the archives of the Ministry in Rome, Italy, there are details about the implementation of a campicello in his school in Bento Gonçalves, in the Italian Colonial Region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. From these two documentary sources and from brief bibliographic research on the trajectory of Professor Luigi Petrocchi in the period in which he worked in the Italian Colonial Region, it was possible to understand the relations between school, community and government regarding the insertion of the campicello as an identifier of the transnational movement between Italy and Brazil with regard to pedagogical practices in schools created by Italian immigrants. This work in development contributes to the expansion of the understanding of educational processes in this context. To date, no other references have been found on the subject, which expands the possibilities of research in the History of Education.

No final do século XIX e início do século XX, o médico, e então Ministro da Agricultura do governo italiano, Guido Bacelli, estimulou e fomentou, como parte da política pedagógica italiana, a implantação de pequenos espaços agrícolas chamados de campicello (campo pequeno ou hortas escolares) destinados às atividades práticas e educativas dos alunos e alunas nas escolas primárias italianas. Diversas obras didáticas italianas e algumas fontes historiográficas orientam e relatam a implantação dessa prática nessas escolas. Em especial, destaco a obra vencedora do concurso coordenado pelo Ministério da Instrução Pública da Itália a partir do edital lançado em 20 de setembro de 1900, e que deveria atender ao critério de ser um manual que versasse sobre as instruções práticas aos professores rurais sobre a implantação e a condução de uma horta escolar. A obra, de autoria de E. Azimonti e C. Campi, intitulada Il Campicello Scolastico – Impianto e Coltivazione. Manuale di Agricoltura pratica per i maestri, foi publicada em 1903 pela Casa Editora Ulrico Hoepli e o exemplar utilizado para a pesquisa foi consultado na Biblioteca Especializada MUB, em Treviso, Itália, em 2023. Sob o olhar da História Cultural e na perspectiva da História Transnacional, essa obra foi analisada quanto a características físicas, conteúdos e particularidades de contexto e de utilização. Observou-se, por exemplo, que o uso do campicello era indicado como uma atividade pedagógica complementar à sala de aula, tanto para o ensino de ciências agrárias quanto para atividades práticas das escolas primárias rurais, como forma de estimular a modernização das práticas agrícolas nas famílias de agricultores. Outro documento usado para esta pesquisa foi o relatório enviado pelo professor italiano Luigi Petrocchi, que atuava como inspetor escolar nas escolas italianas subsidiadas pelo Ministério das Relações Exteriores no Brasil. No documento original, consultado no arquivo do Ministério em Roma, Itália, há detalhes sobre a implantação de um campicello na sua escola em Bento Gonçalves, na Região Colonial Italiana do estado de Rio Grande do Sul. A partir dessas duas fontes documentais e de uma breve pesquisa bibliográfica sobre a trajetória do professor Luigi Petrocchi no período em que atuou na Região Colonial Italiana, foi possível compreender as relações entre escola, comunidade e governo quanto à inserção do campicello como identificador do movimento transnacional entre Itália e Brasil no que diz respeito às práticas pedagógicas nas escolas criadas pelos imigrantes italianos. Este trabalho em desenvolvimento contribui para a ampliação da compreensão dos processos educativos nesse contexto. Até o momento não foram localizadas outras referências sobre a temática, o que amplia as possibilidades de pesquisa na História da Educação.

The history of science teaching in Brazil still lacks investigations that analyse the differences between the prescribed curriculum and the appropriation processes (CERTEAU, 2011) in schools. From this perspective, the curriculum is conceived as “a field of forces” (FARIAS FILHO et al., 2004) and the educational process is related in context which the agents are inserted.

In this line of investigation, a privileged object of study is school subjects. When conceiving school subject a historical object Chervel (1990) argues that there are three dimensions to be considered: genesis (how does the school begin to produce school discipline?); the purpose (what is school discipline for?) and functioning (how do school disciplines operate?). Therefore, the school subjects must be analysed on their historical, normative and practical dimensions.

In the case of subjects of science, there was discussions about teaching methodologies in the second half of the 20th century, for example: the movements of curricular reforms (1960 -1970), the movements alternative conceptions and conceptual change (1980-1990) and the Science, Technology relations and Society (since 1970) (FAÚNDEZ-VALLEJOS, 2016; SCHNETZLER, 2020).

However, the history of education in Brazil still lacks investigations that interpret the relationship between these proposals and the teaching of science and help to understand the changes and continuances that shaped this field of teaching. It there are three reasons for this: the first is that the field of history of education still suffers from the small presence of historians who are also trained in natural sciences; the second is the on the teaching science do not have tradition of to research the history of educational processes; the third is that much of the documentation (sources) of this history is scattered and the verge of being lost.

Therefore, this work presents the first results of a project (Fapesp: 2022/13891-0) which there are two objectives: the first is to preserve the memory of science teaching through the organization of an open institutional digital collection with documents about the science teaching between the 1960s and 1990s and the second is to analyse the process of developing teaching proposals and the constitution of the Chemistry teaching community.

The work consists to select and to catalogue documents (GOMES, 2017) produced by teachers who worked in science teaching during this period and the analysis will use theoretical contributions from cultural history.

Until now, the following actions have been carried out for the development of the project: 1. creation of the repository; 2. identification with the São Paulo academic community of documents produced in the field constitution process; 3. making contacts with approximately 10 professors in the area who have material of interest for this research; 4. meeting with 3 teachers to collect material; 5. creation of a space to disseminate repository data on the website of the History of Science Education Research Group.

Introdução.

A história do ensino de ciências no Brasil ainda carece de investigações que analisem o deslocamento entre o currículo prescrito e os processos de apropriação (CERTEAU, 2011) que acontecem nas escolas. Nesta perspectiva o currículo é concebido como “um campo de forças” (FARIAS FILHO et al., 2004) e o processo educativo está relacionado com o contexto no qual os agentes estão inseridos.

Nesta linha de investigação um objeto de estudo privilegiado é a disciplina escolar. Ao conceber a disciplina escolar como um objeto histórico Chervel (1990) argumenta que há três dimensões a serem consideradas: a gênese (como a escola começa a produzir a disciplina escolar?); a finalidade (para que serve a disciplina escolar?) e o funcionamento (como operam as disciplinas escolares?). Assim, as disciplinas escolares devem ser analisadas em função de suas dimensões histórica, normativa e prática.

No caso das ciências, as discussões sobre as metodologias de ensino ganharam força na segunda metade do século XX com os movimentos das reformas curriculares (1960 -1970), das concepções alternativas e de mudança conceitual (1980-1990) e das relações Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (desde 1970) (FAÚNDEZ-VALLEJOS, 2016; SCHNETZLER, 2020).

No entanto, a história da educação no Brasil ainda se ressente de investigações que interpretem a relação entre essas propostas e o ensino das ciências e auxiliem na compreensão das mudanças e permanências que moldaram esse campo do ensino e há pelo menos duas razões para esta carência: a primeira é que, se por um lado, o campo da história da educação ainda se ressente da pequena presença de historiadores que também sejam formados nas ciências da natureza, por outro lado, os campos das ciências não têm uma tradição de investigação da história de seus processos educativos; a segunda é que grande parte da documentação (das fontes) desta história está dispersa e em vias de se perder.

Objetivos.

Sendo assim, este trabalho apresenta os primeiros resultados de um projeto (Fapesp: 2022/13891-0) que contém dois objetivos: o primeiro é preservar a memória do ensino de ciências a partir da organização de um acervo digital institucional aberto com documentos sobre o ensino de ciências entre as décadas de 1960 e 1990 e o segundo é analisar o processo de elaboração das propostas de ensino e da constituição da comunidade de ensino de Química.

Metodologia.

O trabalho de construção do repositório consiste em selecionar e catalogar documentos (GOMES, 2017) produzidos pelos professores que atuaram no ensino de ciências neste período e a análise se valerá dos aportes teóricos da história cultural.

Resultados.

Até o momento foram realizadas as seguintes ações para o desenvolvimento do projeto: 1. criação do repositório; 2. identificação junto à comunidade acadêmica paulista dos documentos produzidos no processo de constituição do campo; 3. realização de contatos com aproximadamente 10 professores da área que possuem material de interesse para essa pesquisa; 4. reunião com 3 professores para a coleta de material; 5. criação de um espaço de divulgação dos dados do repositório no site do Grupo de Pesquisa em História da Educação em Ciências.