Places, actions and intentions as possibilities of analysis: discourses about rural elementary schools and the education of their teachers (Santa Catarina 1942-1955)

Abstract

This study aims to analyses discourses produced about rural Santa Catarina elementary schools and the education of their teachers, who either praised the excellence of these schools and the education or considered them precarious and deficient. Based on sources such as books, official publications, reports from educational agencies, and messages from governors, the analysis is supported by authors such as Quentin Skinner Pierre Bourdieu and Carlos Eduardo Vieira, who suggest special attention be given to the place where social agents speak, their intentions upon writing, and the conflicts related to the discourses produced. Products of agent’s formulations linked to the educational field in situations of interlocution and public action, the intellectual discourses are related to the theoretical, ideological and linguistic framework available in their context of production, they are cross cutted by questions, debates, and conflicts raised and are linked to projects and action programs. The discourses analyzed here propose actions and interventions in the educational field, present contradictions in the evaluation about the quality of catarinense education which depend on the variables used to measure such “quality” and the actions are related to the intentions and to the  places from where the authors of the utterances talk. The discourses present contradictions in their evaluations of the quality of Santa Catarina education, which depend on the variables used to measure that “quality” and which are related to the intentions and to the places where the authors of the discourses speak.

Keywords: Elementary School. Teacher Education. Rural Education.