The History, the Memory and the Educational Institution: A Necessary Relationship

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between history, memory and the institution of the school. It builds on what the process of searching for, analyzing and interpreting sources according to a theoretical framework reveals about the way the institution of the elementary school came into being in the province of Paraná (1854-1889). Such reflections resulted from dealing with official documents, reports and letters of the public teaching (Presidents of the Province, General Inspectors of Public teaching and teachers who worked in schools) preserved in the Public Archives of Paraná. For in depth analysis we used Le Goff, Saviani, Magalhaes, Farge, Bloch, Thompson and Ciavatta. The reflections proceed from the position that teachers demonstrated originated by the schools. It is concluded that although the data presented by the people in charge at the end of the provincial period showed the failure of the school education, in fact, the work of the teachers has contributed to the process of the institution of the elementary school in the Province.