Educación moral y políticas estatales en perspectiva histórica: Presiones por la moralidad de los profesores: Brasil, siglos XVIII–XX

Abstract

This paper reports a historical investigation of the normalization of behaviors and attitudes required from teachers in their teaching practice in Brazil from the Colonial Period to the early years of the Republic. It was based on the behavior guidelines drafted from the Pombalian reforms in 1759, which created state public education in the Portuguese America of the time to the 1927 educational reform promoted by Francisco Campos in the state of Minas Gerais. The goal was to discuss the development of the content of the appeal to the teachers’ morality in a broad historical dimension and the social tensions produced by the expectation of compliance with the prescribed behaviors. The study hypothesis was that the teachers’ good moral behavior was at the core of the teacher professionalization process at the same time that it was a source of conflicts in the teachers’ relations with students, relatives and education administrators, as well as in the social process of acceptance of teaching as a profession. This study was based on Norbert Elias’ civilizing process theoretical framework, on documental investigation, specifically of legislations, reports and government official communications, and the analysis of the conceptions of education and moral education in classical authors such as Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith and Emile Durkheim. These authors emphasize the importance of education in the socialization and moralization of individuals and point out its role in the moral education process of new generations in the historical context of development and consolidation of the view of civilized behavior as a reference of behavior in western societies.