In the beginning was the word: school culture and vernacular language teaching in Brazilian secondary education (1759-1960)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain the requirements that forged the School Culture around the vernacular language teaching in the Brazilian secondary education through historical analysis of the process of constitution of the Portuguese course, which begins with the imposition of the Portuguese language as the national mother tongue – 1759 – until the beginning of the school democratization process that will modify it significantly – 1960. We will see that the birth of the subject is linked to the formation of the Brazilian nation and the nationalist sentiment, which will reverberate in the way of seeing and thinking vernacular language teaching until today.