This paper explores the practical application of Japanese jujitsu among girls and women in early twentieth-century Britain, a phenomenon seemingly at odds with the colonialist representation of Japan and Japanese women. Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism (1978) argues that the West often perceives Eastern nations as a homogeneous and uncivilised entity, defining them based on Western outsiders’ understanding of Eastern culture. In this sense, Japan, despite not being a colonised nation per se, was perceived as a backward nation that received modern and practical knowledge, such as technology and education, from the West, although there was some flow of information from Japan to the West, primarily in arts and culture. Similarly, Japanese women are often depicted as small and weak, yet fascinating and exotic in Western popular culture, while jujitsu, a Japanese martial art, gained popularity, particularly among women. Initially introduced as a means to enhance physical beauty and health, it evolved into a practical self-defence skill. Some even suggest that the introduction of jujitsu played a significant role in empowering women, marking a departure from their traditional, passive societal roles (Godfrey, 2012). In this respect, women's practical use of jujitsu is often linked to the women’s suffrage movement. This understanding of jujitsu for women seems to contradict the colonialist view of Japan, where jujitsu originated, and women in the country. To understand how and why this contradiction occurred, this paper explores contemporary accounts of teaching jujitsu to girls and women and investigates its use in formal and informal education. It has been suggested that a shift in perception, reframing Japan from a nation to civilise to a nation to learn from, occurred especially after the Russo-Japanese War (Hiraoka, 2015; Tonooka, 2017). While the popularity of jujitsu is explained in this context (Hashimoto, 2011), it might also have been due to the traditional view of Japanese women. According to Said (1991: 51), the Orient was often perceived as exotic, mysterious, and profound, which might have been the reason for their acceptance of jujitsu for women as Bowman (2021: 50-51) points out that colonial and class consciousness in British society led them to see jujitsu coincided with Victorian and Edwardian notions of gentlemanliness and ladylikeness. By investigating the discourses on and practice of jujitsu for girls and women, this paper aims to offer a nuanced understanding of the role of jujitsu in early twentieth-century Britain, challenging the perception of Japan and Japanese women as exotic and not practical, but they could be both exotic and practical. It underscores the importance of overcoming orientalist perceptions of the East and acknowledging the practical and empowering aspects of cultural exchange in education within a broader context. As a result, this study hopes to shed light on the influence of transnational information flow, which was nonetheless a one-way flow but flowed from both sides, even between the centre and the periphery at the age of the empire.

An investigation on the history of school in the province of Palermo since the Unification of Italy highlighted an issue that concerns primary school, in particular the female education that includes both the female pupils and teachers. The documents viewed, for example inspectors’ reports or visit reports, give a contradictory picture of the post-unification primary education: on the one hand, the progress is recorded, such as the increase in the number of schools, the growing attendance of pupils, on the other hand some critical issues emerge, such as the absence of a qualitative growth in the popular education and the miserable condition of teachers, both on an economic and cultural level, i.e. a little and an inadequate preparation. Another issue concerns gender differences, that is returned by the documents on female education, on economic conditions, on laws, on the primary schools that actually existed and on normal schools. Interesting are the documents relating to the “Pietro Domina” Higher Education Institute of Petralia Sottana in the province of Palermo, Sicily, that was located in the same building where, from the first half of the 17th century, was hosted a Dominican female monastery of the S.S.Trinità. The unedited sources preserved in the Historical Archives of the Institute reveal the female spiritual and educational destination of the Institute that, during the eighteenth century, hosted one of the Colleges of Mary widespread in Sicily at that time. These colleges educated the poor young women who often was marginalized by society and were excluded from schools that took in only rich girls. After the Royal Decree of June 20, 1871, which regulated the reorganization of the Colleges of Mary in Sicily, a rapid growth of the Petralia Educandato was initiated, where in the 1874-1875 school year the girls’ elementary school course was born and in 1877 the Girls’ Magisterial School with a boarding school. First a rural school, the institute later became the Royal Women’s High Normal School that provided the enabling “license” to teach in primary schools, then, during the twenty years of fascism, it was transformed into a teacher training institute. The institute became a High School of Human Sciences and closed in 2023; although it welcomed pupils of both genders, today it is remembered as “the town of female teachers” because, for many decades, it prepared many future girl teachers in the rural western Sicily. The research on the Domina Institute is part of a larger historical-educational investigation on female education in southern Italy from the nineteenth century to today. This research is about the education of girls and the training of teachers, with a particular attention to the “rural” teachers, who today we could define as “frontier” teachers, female figures who have contributed to the fight against illiteracy and school dispersal. Methodologies: hermeneutic and critical approach. Documentation: Ministerial documents, critical literature, journals, newspapers, testimonies, iconographic sources, archival sources. Placement in the literature on the topic: This is a central theme in the school history research and in the history of education.

The exercise of reflecting and giving new perspectives to the world necessarily implies (un)learning and (re)signifying everything that has been forged in us in the dynamics of sociability in various social contexts, be they family, school, professional, academic and /or in virtual relationships. The first census in Brazil, carried out in 1872, shows that there were 1.5 million enslaved people in the national territory (15% of the inhabitants), including Africans and Brazilians. Of the total population, 48.4% were women. Maria Firmina dos Reis, Hilária Batista de Almeida - Tia Ciata, Maria Felipa de Oliveira were certainly not the only women representing history in Brazil in the 1800s. This study's theme is to analyze invisible stories about a time and characters who, despite carrying out common everyday attitudes, contributed greatly to our history of education. The general objective is, therefore, to know and analyze the life trajectory of Balbina Gomes da Graça, black and literate, who at the end of the 1820s, founded a women's school, as well as Bernardina Gomes Cesarino who directed the Perseverança school, one of the most expressive of the time. On a more specific level, analyze and understand how the school, through tuition paid by the best families in the city, offered classes to enslaved women at night. The deconstruction of paradigms has never been an easy task and, according to Chauí, it is necessary to reflect on the construction of Brazilian society, understand the “founding myth”. The extermination of what is distinct from the model of universality has always been configured as a power project. From this perspective, the myth has fulfilled its role, which is to narrate a created reality, favoring the reproduction of a place of enunciation. In this sense, the science and publication (especially in school territories) of stories that seek to collectively reflect and overcome hegemonic visions of intervention/transformation of the world is essential. This is what, in the same vein, Adichie points out as “The danger of a single story”, which, by presenting gaps, is capable of robbing people of their dignity and making it difficult to recognize a shared humanity. Today, we have the possibility of knowing about the existence of inequality in narratives that stereotype, subordinate, dominate and categorize. Regardless of the end of colonialism, coloniality perpetuates itself in spheres/dimensions that are interrelated and that, according to Walsh, operate in an intersectional way, contributing to the maintenance of subalternization and difference as an issue to be resolved. This is a historical-documentary research in which the sources are embodied in the bibliographical analysis of documents, photographs and remaining records. It is concluded that in the midst of so many challenges that are imposed on us, it is necessary to give visibility to decolonial thinking, based on counter-hegemonic voices that reveal other more universalizing and segregating approaches to racial, social and gender differences.

O exercício de refletir e dar novos olhares ao mundo implica, forçosamente, em (des)aprender e (re)significar tudo o que nos foi forjado nas dinâmicas de sociabilidade em vários contextos sociais sejam eles familiares, escolares, em ambientes profissionais, acadêmicos e/ou nas relações virtuais. O primeiro censo no Brasil, realizado em 1872, mostra que havia no território nacional 1,5 milhão de escravizados (15% dos habitantes), entre africanos e brasileiros. Da população total, 48,4% eram mulheres. Maria Firmina dos Reis, Hilária Batista de Almeida - Tia Ciata, Maria Felipa de Oliveira, certamente, não foram as únicas mulheres representativas da história no Brasil dos oitocentos. Este estudo tem como tema analisar histórias invisibilizadas sobre um tempo e personagens que, ainda que desempenhando atitudes corriqueiras do cotidiano contribuíram, sobremaneira, para a nossa história da educação. O objetivo geral é, portanto, conhecer e analisar a trajetória de vida de Balbina Gomes da Graça, negra e alfabetizada, que no final da década de 1820, fundou um colégio feminino bem como de Bernardina Gomes Cesarino que dirigiu a escola Perseverança, uma das mais expressivas da época. Em um plano mais específico, analisar e entender como a escola, através das mensalidades concorridas pelas melhores famílias da cidade, oferecia aulas para mulheres escravizadas no período noturno. A desconstrução de paradigmas nunca foi tarefa fácil e, de acordo com Chauí, é preciso refletir sobre a construção da sociedade brasileira, entender a fala do “Mito fundador”. O extermínio daquilo que é distinto ao modelo de universalidade sempre se configurou como projeto de poder. Nessa perspectiva, o mito tem cumprido seu papel que é o de narrar uma realidade criada, favorecendo a reprodução de um lugar de enunciação. Nesse viés, é fundamental a ciência e publicização (em especial nos territórios da escola) das histórias que buscam refletir coletivamente e superar visões hegemônicas de intervenção/ transformação do mundo. É o que, na mesma esteira, Adichie aponta como “O perigo da história única”, que por apresentar lacunas, é capaz de roubar a dignidade das pessoas e dificultar o reconhecimento de uma humanidade compartilhada. Hodiernamente, temos a possibilidade de saber sobre a existência da desigualdade de narrativas que estereotipam, subalternizam, dominam e categorizam. Independentemente do fim do colonialismo, a colonialidade se perpetua em esferas/dimensões que se inter-relacionam e que de acordo com Walsh, operam de modo interseccional, contribuindo para a manutenção da subalternização e da diferença como uma questão a ser sanada. Trata-se de uma pesquisa histórico-documental em que as fontes se consubstanciam na análise bibliográfica, de documentos, fotografias e registros remanescentes. Conclui-se que em meio a tantos desafios que nos são impostos, é preciso lançar visibilidade ao pensamento decolonial, a partir de vozes contra hegemônicas e que descortinam outras abordagens mais universalizantes e segregadores das diferenças raciais, sociais e de gênero.

Since the second half of the 19th Century, a new model of medicine has emerged in the context of debates on health science: experimental medicine. As a result of profound changes in medical training inspired by the German and French models, experimental medicine has the physicians and physiologists Françoise Magendie and Claude Bernard as its most important representatives.

In Brazil, it had been the subject of medical journals since the reign of Dom Pedro II (1840-89) and incorporated gradually into public institutes from the beginning of the 20th Century, pointing the origins based on the deepening of specialized knowledge and laboratories for science development based on the inductive method. The experimental medicine ideal was the improvement of methods and processes that opposed observation and the fragility of assumptions, intending to reinforce scientific truths that became irrefutable. Most prominent Brazilian institution examples are the Osvaldo Cruz Institute and the Butantan Institute.

In this paper, we highlight the role of experimental medicine at the Butantan Institute during the 1930s and 1940s and relate it to the guiding principles of the Butantan Rural School Group (BRSG), understood as an experimental model of education.

During this period, the institution added the study of human pathologies to its mission, expanding its laboratories and areas of knowledge with the opening of the Genetics, Physiology, and Pharmacology sections, for example.

By the influence of Dr. Afrânio do Amaral, the director, Butantan tried to combine experimental medicine model with the main concepts of rural education, supporting and encouraging actions such as vegetable gardens planting and animal raising, among others.

Under the political influence of Dr. Amaral, the Butantan Institute has made an official agreement with the São Paulo State Government to maintain the rural character of the school, always emphasizing its experimental nature, even after the closure of all the other rural schools in the 1930s. Butantan Rural School Group would remain on the Institute's campus until 1952.

BRSG served the children of the workers as well as the children of the neighborhood in a pedagogy based on the ruralist ideology, which aimed at valuing the rural man in opposition to the degeneration of housing and public hygiene in the urban environment, related to the sanitary and eugenic concepts of the time.

We aim to analyze the extent to which the Butantan Rural School Group was one of the ways used institutionally to reinforce the concepts of experimentation related to education.

In addition, we highlight the school's influence on the national scene during the leadership of Mrs. Noemia Cruz, when GERB became a reference and a model in rural education in Brazil, aimed at spreading the benefits of maintaining an ideal of public health, relating it to the context of urban immigration and rural exodus.

To do this, we used Rural School Group Fund's documents and other institutional documents under the custody of Butantan Institute Memory Center.

A partir da segunda metade do século XIX um novo modelo de medicina passa a fazer parte dos debates sobre ciência e saúde: a medicina experimental. Resultado de profundas transformações que ocorreram no ensino médico, inspiradas no modelo germânico e francês, a medicina experimental teve como expoentes os médicos e fisiologistas Françoise Magendie e Claude Bernard.

No Brasil foi assunto dos periódicos médicos desde o segundo reinado sendo, progressivamente, incorporada aos institutos públicos a partir do início do século XX, revelando uma mesma gênese espelhada no aprofundamento do saber especializado e na materialização de espaços instrumentalizados para o desenvolvimento das ciências baseadas no método indutivo, bem como no aprimoramento de métodos e processos que se opunham à observação e à fragilidade das suposições, e cujos objetivos eram reforçar verdades científicas que passam a ser irrefutáveis. Os exemplos mais contundentes são o Instituto Osvaldo Cruz e o Instituto Butantan.

Nesta apresentação iremos apontar o papel da medicina experimental no Instituto Butantan entre as décadas de 1930 e 40, relacionando-o aos princípios norteadores do Grupo Escolar Rural de Butantan (GERB), entendido como modelo experimental de educação. Neste período, a instituição acrescenta à sua missão o estudo das patologias humanas, ampliando laboratórios, recursos humanos e áreas de conhecimento com a inauguração das seções de genética, fisiologia e farmacologia, por exemplo. Por influência do então diretor Afrânio do Amaral, o Butantan procura conectar o modelo da medicina experimental aos conceitos principais da educação ruralista, apoiando e incentivando ações como a plantação de hortas e criação de animais nas residências dos funcionários e oficializando, junto ao governo do Estado de São Paulo a permanência do Grupo Escolar Rural de Butantan no interior do Instituto até a ano de 1952, ressaltando seu caráter experimental. O GERB atendia os filhos de funcionários e das famílias do entorno em movimento que teve, por princípio, a ideologia ruralista voltada à valorização do homem do campo em oposição à degeneração das moradias e da higiene pública no cenário urbano, se relacionando aos conceitos sanitários e eugenistas do período.

Nosso objetivo é analisar o quanto o Grupo Escolar Rural de Butantan foi um dos principais recursos utilizados institucionalmente para introduzir os conceitos de experimentação aliados a educação. Mas, destacamos também sua influência no cenário nacional durante a direção da Prof. Noêmia Saraiva Cruz, quando o GERB passa a ser referência em educação rural no Brasil, sendo considerado como um modelo pedagógico a ser seguido pelo ruralismo, voltado a propagar os benefícios da manutenção de um ideal de saúde pública relacionando-o ao contexto da imigração urbana e ao êxodo rural.

Para isso, utilizamos os documentos que compõem o Fundo Grupo Escolar Rural que compõem parte do acervo do Centro de Memória do Instituto Butantan.