Writing and reading diaries in the education of teachers for the rural schools of Minas Gerais (1948-1974)

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the main principles of the proposal of teacher education at Ginásio Normal Rural Oficial Sandoval Soares de Azevedo and some aspects of the practices developed there from 1948 to 1974. It was the first normal school in Minas Gerais state focused on the education of teachers for rural schools. Besides this particularity, its differentiated proposal, profoundly marked by ideals developed by the psychologist and educator Helena Antipoff and her collaborators, draws attention to this school in the educational scenario of Minas Gerais and Brazil. In this analysis, we can observe the emphasis given to what Antipoff called the comprehensive education of normal school students, connecting the development of reflection and socio-affective dimensions to the values of democracy and collective well-being, aspects hardly discussed in recent studies on this institution. This documental research has used three different written sources: legislation and official/institutional administrative documents; two collections of texts by Helena Antipoff from 1929 to the 1970s, published in 2002 and 1992, respectively; six diaries written by the normal school students, in which they reported their everyday activities and expressed their opinions. We can identify, in the proposal of comprehensive education developed in the institution, the adaptation of Escola Nova principles to the rural environment and the integration of interests and necessities of the students to the democratic principles of autonomy and cooperation, aiming at collective well-being.