1 Introduction

The entry of women into teacher training schools in Brazil increased with the creation of Normal Schools at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when teaching in primary education was no longer attractive to men. In addition to basic education schools for girls, as provided for in the First Public Instruction Law of 1827, there should also be an option for the professionalization of women, with a “[...] job that did not go against the representations about her domesticity and motherhood. Teaching fell perfectly well into this category, at least that was what the official discourse at the time said” (^{Almeida, 1998}, p. 55, our translation). In this way, Normal Schools in Brazil became “[...] one of the few opportunities, if not the only one, for women to continue their studies after primary school” (^{Demartini; Antunes, 1993}, p. 6, our translation).

The entry of women into Normal Schools allowed female recruitment for primary teaching and was seen as a solution to the problem of the workforce in elementary schools, in addition to enabling them to enter a socially accepted profession for the female universe, because teaching, as ^{Louro (1989}, p. 35, our translation) states: “[...] is more suitable for women, as it requires childcare; being a teacher is, in a way, an extension of the role of a mother. Furthermore, teaching is seen as good preparation for the future mother”. The entry of women into Normal Schools also triggered, from the end of the 19th century, the process of feminization of teaching, which served to give more defined contours to the teaching profession, since this entry represented a path for women who needed to work, as well as for those who wanted to study a little more (^{Louro, 1989}, ²⁰⁰⁰; ^{Sousa, 2000}).

Despite the insertion of women in Normal Schools and the job market, which ended up meeting interests, as previously discussed, there were no changes in the condition of equality between men and women. Even though women had gotten the right to study in Normal Schools and teach, female teachers would teach girls and men would teach boys. It even affected their salaries, as men earned/earn much more, have different training objectives, and evaluate in different ways (^{Louro, 2003}).

Although the process of creation and consolidation of Normal Schools was slow, it was in the Republic that they became training centers, especially for women teachers - women who saw possibilities for expanding their social insertion through this type of profession. In this process, the Normal Schools, despite having been highlighted in the Organic Laws of Normal Education of 1946, as well as receiving distinction in Law No. 4024/¹⁹⁶¹, did not reach, in terms of teacher training, the Brazilian needs of the time (^{Fusari; Cortese, 1989}). For these authors, there were many setbacks and difficulties. They also add that the Normal Courses, protected by the Organic Laws, were marked by the duality in training, by establishing the training of teachers for the elite offered to the popular classes; the first cycle was destined to the training of the class teachers to perform in the rural area; and the second cycle had diversified characteristics, which provided conditions for continuing studies and conditions to work in the urban area.

Both under Organic Laws and under Law No. 4024/¹⁹⁶¹, teacher training courses, until the 1970s, already had a female presence, a characteristic that gradually intensified since the middle of the First Republic. In the 1990s, this process culminated in the absolute majority of women in teaching, which, according to ^{Vianna (2013}, p. 165, our translation), was related, “[...] albeit indirectly, to the dynamics of the job market and, within it, the gender division of labor and the configuration of so-called female professions”.

Given these considerations, a problem emerged and guided the development of this article: how was the presence of women in teacher training courses, especially in two teaching courses, one located in Belém, in the state of Pará, in the North region of the country, and another located in Dourados, an inland city in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Central-West region, in the period from 1974 to 1991? This problem raised other questions: was there a feminization of teaching within the scope of these two teacher training courses? If so, why were women the majority? Would there be common aspects in the teacher training process of these two teaching courses located in different Brazilian regions and states that would make it possible to infer approximations between them? What would they be?

To respond to the guiding problem of the research, a study was carried out to analyze the training of teachers in the teaching courses at the Institute of Education of Pará in Belém, in the state of Pará, and at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição of Dourados, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, to understand the participation of women in these two courses, from 1974 to 1991.

The year 1974 marks the implementation of specific qualifications for teaching by Law No. 5692/1971, and 1991 corresponds to the closure of one of the teaching courses researched, in this case, the one at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição, in the municipality of Dourados, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

From this perspective, this article is part of research in the History of Education, in particular in the History of Teacher Training in Brazil, dealing with women in teaching courses, established through Law No. 5692/1971, focusing on teaching courses in two Brazilian states belonging to two different regions. Thus, this study can contribute to expanding the understanding of the history of teacher training in Brazil, especially concerning the presence of women in the process of teacher training in teaching courses, in the period from 1974 to 1991.

We use bibliographic, documentary, legal sources, and other materials - among them, a graduation invitation containing lists of graduates of the teaching course at the Institute of Education of Pará, Belém, from the year 1977, with a record of 18 classes of students graduating that year, as well as graduation invitations for the classes of the teaching course in Dourados from 1979 to 1984, Diploma Records Books (1974-1991), Minutes of Final Results from Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição (1974-1991), among others. These documents were analyzed and interpreted based on references linked to history, history of education, and history of teacher training, among others.

2 The specific qualification for teaching in the history of teacher training in Brazil

In Brazil, the history of teacher training had three important periods, according to ^{Saviani (2005)}. The first occurred with the reform of the Normal School of the state of São Paulo, in 1890, inspired by the republican model, which spread throughout Brazil. The second period was characterized by the teaching reforms inspired by the Escola Nova, carried out in the Federal District, in 1932, under the direction of Anísio Teixeira. In the state of São Paulo, in 1933, Fernando de Azevedo was at the head of these actions. The third period was a consequence of the Educational Reform, included in Law No. 5692/1971, with the creation of specific qualifications for teaching (^{Saviani, 2005}).

The first Brazilian Normal School was established in the province of Rio de Janeiro, in 1835. In the years following the creation of this first Normal School, specifically between the years 1835 and 1846, similar institutions were installed in other provinces, such as in Minas Gerais, created in 1835, but installed in 1840; in Bahia, created in 1836, but installed in 1841; and in São Paulo, created and installed in 1846 (^{Tanuri, 2000}). However, in 1849, during the imperial government, the Normal Course was closed in the existing Normal Schools, and replaced by the regime of adjunct teachers, that is, assistants to teachers. However, in 1859, the creation of Normal Schools was resumed, one in Niterói and four more in the 1860s: one in Pernambuco and one in Piauí, in 1864 (both installed in 1865); another in Alagoas, in 1864 (installed in 1869); and another in São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, in 1869 (^{Saviani, 2005}; ^{Tanuri, 2000}).

The creation of Normal Schools was not stable during the imperial government until 1870. From 1870 onwards, the other Brazilian provinces that had not yet received Normal Schools created and installed their institutions. The provinces of Goiás and Paraíba were the last to have their Normal Schools, respectively in 1884 and 1885. Later in the republican period, this process of creating and installing Normal Schools was consolidated (^{Tanuri, 2000}). Thus, the Normal Schools expanded and operated until the reform of Law No. 5692/1971.

It is important to clarify that Law No. 5692/1971, which reformed primary and secondary education, was part of the I Education and Culture Sector Plan (PSEC) launched by the government of President Emílio Garrastazu Médici (1969-1974). Thus, this law modified primary and secondary education, introducing the designation “first and second degrees”. Instead of the primary course previously developed in four grades, followed by secondary education, divided into a junior high course of four grades and a high school course of three, they organized first-grade education of eight years and second-grade education of three to four years, including vocational education. In this new structure, concerning teacher training, the Normal Schools disappeared, with a specific second-degree qualification being instituted to exercise first-degree teaching (^{Brasil, 1971}). On the subject, ^{Ayache (2020}, p. 23, our translation) points out that, “[...] among the changes described in the guidelines that guided teacher training, was the gradual replacement of Normal Schools with Specific Qualification for Teaching”.

With the educational reform, granted by Law No. 5692/1971, the Normal School lost its status, as teaching was established by this law as a qualification¹, not necessarily referring to a course, as was the Normal course, as stated in Chapter V, article 30, about teachers and specialists. The minimum training requirements for teaching are detailed in this article in letter ‘a’: “[...] in primary education, from 1st to 4th grades, specific 2nd-degree qualification”² (^{Brasil, 1971}, our translation).

Teachers whose training corresponded to that specified in this letter “a” could teach from the fifth to the eighth grades of the first degree if the qualification obtained lasted four grades per year and, when in three years, by taking additional courses in “[...] colleges, centers, schools, institutes or other types of establishments created for this purpose” (^{Brasil, 1971}, sole paragraph, art. 31, our translation). Opinion No. 349/1972³, issued by the Federal Council of Education, specifies that “[...] additional studies would correspond to one academic year, and could include pedagogical training” (^{Brasil, 1973}, p. 85, our translation).

Thus, this law introduces the idea of qualification for teaching and, at the same time, suppresses the Normal courses carried out in Normal Schools, as well as not referring to the training institution (^{Fusari; Cortese, 1989}).

The transformation of the Normal School into Qualification for Teaching was based on the decharacterization of secondary education. For the elites, it was still assured high-quality propaedeutic education (in public and private schools) or even vocational education (mainly in the 20 federal industrial technical schools located in the states’ capitals); for the majority sections of the population (mainly the working class who attended high school in the evening), low-quality education began to be offered, thus not providing competent professionalism or preparation for university entrance exams, much less for transformative social practice.

There were several official justifications for the change, which can be summarized according to Opinion No. 349/1972 - Normal courses were not professionalizing, which made it difficult for graduates to enter the job market due to the academic nature of these courses, allowing only admission to universities, due to the general culture they provided; these negative aspects would be corrected by Law No. 5692/1971.

Under the argument that education is an art of teaching and that, to do so, it would be necessary to experience, practice, and, therefore, develop specialized and technical knowledge, this training should overlap with general training. Having this direction of teaching courses in mind, this text will focus, in the next section, on the two courses researched.

3 Teaching courses in Belém, Pará, and Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul

3.2 The presence of women in the teaching course at Escola Imaculada Conceição of Dourados in Mato Grosso do Sul

Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição, created in the municipality of Dourados, in the 1950s, was established by the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity⁵, one of the female religious congregations belonging to the Franciscan Order. These sisters arrived in Dourados from Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul, intending to work in catechesis and primary school, according to the report found in Chronicles 5 of Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição, dated February 9, 1955 (^{Amaro, 2018}). Gradually, the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity gave prominence to their roles in the area of education, demonstrating their possibilities, and internal and external difficulties within the society of Dourados.

With the increase in the service for school-age children, the lack of teachers became a problem for the sisters. Seeking to solve this, in 1959, they implemented the Normal Regional and Normal Colegial Courses for female education and teacher training, aiming to reach young women in the region. Thus, the Normal Course operated at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição of Dourados until the implementation of Law No. 5692/1971, which reformulated first and second-degree education, as previously discussed.

It is worth remembering that, during this period, the state of Mato Grosso was not yet divided, since it only occurred at the end of the 1970s, when President Ernesto Geisel signed Complementary Law No. 31/1977, dividing Mato Grosso and creating the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (^{Queiroz, 2006}). In the territory of Mato Grosso, the specific qualification for teaching followed the same path as in other Brazilian states, being installed at the beginning of the 1970s, resulting from Law No. 5692/1971, which extinguished the Normal Schools and, instead, implemented the specific qualification and second degree to teach the first degree.

In the case of Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição of Dourados, as in other Brazilian educational institutions, Law No. 5692/1971 was implemented in 1974. It was during this period that, in this Franciscan school, teaching was restructured, and the Normal Course in operation at the institution since the end of the 1950s was extinguished, demanding specific qualifications for teaching. This is confirmed by the record of the diploma of a former student of Escola Imaculada Conceição from 1975, as shown in Figure 1.

Source: Book No. 1 (1975).

Figure 1 Diploma from a former student of Escola Imaculada Conceição 

In the Diploma Registration Book, it is possible to see that the student was qualified by Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição of Dourados to teach as a teacher from first to fourth grade, in primary education, thus complying with the prescriptions of Law No. 5692/1971.

At Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição, the specific qualification for teaching operated in a reserved manner in comparison to other courses available at the institution, in rooms that were located in the school building, on the upper floor. As it was a course made up of women, the sisters distanced the young girls from the boys.

Between 1974 and 1991, the teaching course at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição taught 17 classes. In Table 1, we present the number of graduates, according to their gender.

Table 1 Data regarding the number of graduates (1974-1991) 

Years	Women	Men
1974 to 1979	77	0
1980 to 1984	92	0
1985 to 1989	103	0
1990 to 1991	23	0
Total	295	0

Source: Prepared by Pizatto (2022) in accordance with the Annual Results Minutes of Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição (Pizatto, 2022).

The data presented above allows us to understand that the teaching course at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição trained only women as teachers. In this regard, authors in the field help us reflect that women were able to become professionals through teaching because society understood that school education was an extension of the education received by children in their homes. Thus, “[...] the role of mother in the family was extended to the school through the teacher. [...] Women, mothers and educators by nature, now began to extend their role to schools in the profession of teachers” (^{Schaffrath, 2000}, p. 10-11, our translation).

Other data, which reinforce the fact that the teaching course at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição of Dourados became a training course for women teachers, were found in the personal files of former students of the course. As recorded by ^{Cunha and Almeida (2021}, p. 1, our translation), personal files:

[...] store materials and documents on various supports that contain traces of the individual’s history and, at the same time, of the networks they are part of, that is, they allow the identification of other social actors and the interrelationships established within these subjects.

In this sense, the personal files of some former students of the teaching course were important for locating various materials and documents, including the teaching graduation invitations from the classes of 1979 and 1984.

As graduation invitations represent the completion of a stage in the schooling process, these invitations bring information about the name of the educational institution, the authorities who were present at the ceremony, the patrons, paranymphs, speakers of the training course, and the list of graduates, thus being important historical sources for the history of education. Therefore, it can be said that these invitations from the years 1979 and 1984 of the teaching course at Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição allow us to understand and reinforce that, in this Catholic confessional teaching institution in Dourados, only women teachers were trained, since, in 1979, 11 female teachers were trained and, in 1984, 25 female teachers, which represented more than double the number of female teachers trained in comparison to 1979.

Thus, it appears that the two institutions have the common aspect that, although in different numbers, they trained women teachers. The first totaled, in 1977, 806 teachers, and the second 295, between 1974 and 1991, thus having a smaller number of students per class in comparison to the first, as can be seen, respectively, in Chart 1 and Table 1.

4 Final considerations

Considering the question that guided this study, namely: how was the presence of women in teacher training courses, especially in two teaching courses, one located in Belém, in the state of Pará, in the North region of the country, and another located in Dourados, in an inland city of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Central-West region, in the period from 1974 to 1991? The results indicate that, although the study sources provide data on the particularities of the teaching courses at both institutions, despite the approximation we attempted to achieve, we understand that we have answered the question since there was a majority of women in both teaching courses. This is a common aspect and, at the same time, a link between the two courses researched.

Thus, everything indicates that women were the majority, and we can no longer speak of a trend, but of the consolidation of the feminization of teaching, which began in the 1920s. In Pará, it already occurred at the beginning of the Republic. However, what draws attention is the significant number of IEP female graduates, nearly 100%, which points to the massification of female training in teaching in that place and time, similar to Mato Grosso do Sul. In the case of southern Mato Grosso (current Mato Grosso do Sul), although the Normal Schools were installed late, since the first educational institution of this nature and second in the entire Mato Grosso state was installed in Campo Grande, in 1930, already at the end of the First Republic, the feminization of teaching had already started since the beginning of the installation of this first Normal School in Campo Grande and intensified from the end of the 1940s, with the expansion of Normal Schools triggered in the state of Mato Grosso, between the years of 1948 and 1970. However, the significant number of female graduates in the teaching course at Escola Francisca Imaculada Conceição of Dourados was also surprising, reaching a percentage of 100% between 1974 and 1991.

Despite the limitations of this article, a work of this nature allows us to reflect and understand the presence of women in teacher training courses. It also opens paths for new research on their presence in teacher training courses.