Abstract

FARIAS, GILMAR BESERRA DE. The materiality of Valdemar de Oliveira's textbooks and the school subject Natural History/Biology. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2022, vol.22, n.74, pp.1410-1434.  Epub Nov 19, 2022. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.22.074.ao08.

The objective of this work was to understand the materiality of the Natural History/ Biology textbooks by Valdemar de Oliveira published between the 1930s and 1960s. Through documentary research, cover sheets, title pages, prefaces, summaries and introductions of nine textbooks were analyzed to verify the intentions revealed by the author, the applications produced and the social interactions involved in the context. Four situations emerged and strongly marked the trajectory of the Natural History/Biology school subject: 1) In the 1930s, there was an influence of the New School movement and the Sociability Network of Valdemar de Oliveira for the maintenance and valorization of Natural History as a school subject; 2) In the 1940s, instability marked the subject with the change of its name and adjustments in the selection of contents; 3) In the 1950s, the definition of the minimum curriculum and the expertise of Valdemar de Oliveira led to a valorization of the Hygiene content; 4) In the 1960s, the Guidelines of the Brazilian Education System Law (LDB) brought more flexibility to the contents, and the school subject Biology was named as Natural History until replaced by the American project BSCS.

Keywords : Textbooks; Natural History; School Subject History.

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