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Cadernos de História da Educação

versión On-line ISSN 1982-7806

Cad. Hist. Educ. vol.19 no.3 Uberlândia set./dic 2020  Epub 26-Oct-2020

https://doi.org/10.14393/che-v19n3-2020-14 

PAPERS

The formative education and the teaching of a teacher of children (1937-1971)1

Marta Maria de Araújo1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5820-9462; lattes: 6905794496420579

Hercília Maria Fernandes2 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5927-5629; lattes: 5652804027020933

1Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (Brasil) martaujo@uol.com.br

2Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (Brasil) fernandeshercila@hotmail.com


Abstract

The pedagogical formation and professional teaching of Prof. Marinete Gomes Bezerra, in the years 1937-1940 (Teachers' School of Natal) and 1941-1971 (urban and rural public schools), respectively, are objects of historical reflection of the present work. For the analysis of the documentary sources (book of reminiscences, educational legislation, registration of diploma, teaching program and materials of research of Fernandes), the methodological understanding defined by Catani (2000) was pertinent, so a simultaneous and integrated analysis of the theoretical and practical dimensions could be proceed - formation and teaching - in the institutions of study and work, and beyond disciplinary knowledge. The concluding finding is that the theoretical and practical dimensions of the pedagogical formation and professional teaching of Prof. Marinete were performed through a dialogue with an institutionalized literature of the educational sciences. Consequently, culminating in the complexity of a relatively complete formation to effect the integral education of the child student of the public school.

Keywords: Teachers' School of Natal; Pedagogical training; Professional teaching; Public teaching

Resumo

A formação pedagógica e a docência profissional da prof.ª Marinete Gomes Bezerra, nos anos de 1937-1940 (Escola Normal de Natal) e de 1941-1971 (escolas públicas urbanas e rural), respectivamente, são objetos de reflexão histórica do presente trabalho. Para a análise das fontes documentais (livro de reminiscências, legislação educacional, registro de diploma, programa de ensino), tornou-se pertinente o entendimento metodológico definido por Catani (2000), para que se procedesse a uma análise simultânea e integrada das dimensões teóricas e práticas - formação e docência - nas instituições de estudo e de trabalho, e para além dos saberes disciplinares. A constação conclusiva é que a dimensão teórica e a dimensão prática da formação pedagógica e da docência profissional da prof.ª Marinete efetuaram-se pela interlocução com uma literatura institucionalizada das ciências da educação. Por conseguinte, culminando na complexidade de uma formação relativamente completa para efetivar a educação integral da criança-aluna da escola pública.

Palavras-chave: Escola Normal de Natal; Formação pedagógica; Docência profissional; Magistério público

Resumen

La formación académica y la enseñanza profesional de la profesora Marinete Gomes Bezerra, en los años 1937-1940 (Escuela de Formación de Profesores de Natal) y 1941-1971 (escuelas públicas urbanas y rurales), respectivamente, son objetos de reflexión histórica del presente trabajo. Para el análisis de las fuentes documentales (libro de reminiscencias, legislación educativa, registro de diplomas, programa de enseñanza), la comprensión metodológica definida por Catani (2000) se hizo pertinente, de modo que se llevó a cabo un análisis simultáneo e integrado de las dimensiones teóricas y prácticas - capacitación y enseñanza - en instituciones de estudio y trabajo, y más allá del conocimiento disciplinario. La constatación final es que las dimensiones teóricas y prácticas de la formación pedagógica y la enseñanza profesional de la profesora Marinete se hicieron a través del diálogo con una literatura institucionalizada de las ciencias de la educación. En consecuencia, culmina en la complejidad de una capacitación relativamente completa para lograr la educación integral del alumno niño de la escuela pública.

Palabras clave: Escuela de formación de profesores de Natal; Formación pedagógica; Enseñanza profesional; Docencia pública

Introduction

Prof. Marinete Gomes Bezerra (baptized with the name Maria Nazaré Gomes) was born on January 9, 1921, in the city of Macaíba (Rio Grande do Norte state), where she lived her childhood with joy inherent in this phase of life. She was the second daughter (among five siblings, three women and two men) of Raimundo Ferreira Gomes (driver, minimally literate) and Anália Martins Gomes (responsible for household chores and responsible for children educating, also minimally literate). Prof. Marinete Gomes Bezerra was born in a decade of expansion of elementary schools in cities, towns, villages, small towns and small farms.

This expansion of elementary schools was decisive in expanding educational opportunities, especially for the poor population aged 6 to 14 years old. This happened simultaneously with the school health care services for public health (medical and dental care for the schoolchildren), which were part of the state government’s socio-educational reform program (1908-1930), including the creation of the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal) - Decree no. 178, of April 29, 1908. Centers of political power, the host cities of the thirty-seven municipalities existing at the time were mostly benefited by the institutionalization of the school group modality.

It was in the continuity of that socio-educational reforms program of the governments of Rio Grande do Norte state that Prof. Marinete was enrolled, by her parents, in the “Auta de Souza” School Group, in her hometown (Macaíba), created in the government of Alberto Frederico de Albuquerque Maranhão (Decree n° 255, of October 19, 1911) and expanded in the government of José Augusto Bezerra de Medeiros, with the complementary course (Decree n° 223, of January 28, 1924).

In her book of reminiscences - A great love - written in a romanticized way, published in the year in which she completed eighty-four years, Prof. Marinete Bezerra (2005, p. 10) reports that her elementary education was carried out “[. ..] with six years of in-depth studies, with written and oral tests”. Professor Ermínia is remembered for her rigidity in teaching; professor Yayá, who taught her to read and write, is remembered for her attitudes of affection and dedication, in addition to her visible ability to deal with children.

Early childhood education (two years), elementary primary education (two years) and the complementary course (two years) took place in the period from 1928 (when she joined the children's school for boys and girls, at the age of eight) to 1936 (when she completed the complementary course at the age of fourteen). According to her, having passed with distinction guaranteed her enrollment in the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), without having to take tests.

This work, as one of the products of a research project under development - The education of women in Brazil and Portugal (19th and 20th centuries) -, provided by a documentary corpus, aims to elucidate the theoretical and practical dimension of pedagogical formation at the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), 1936-1940, and the professional teaching of Prof. Marinete, in a special way, at the Escola Isolada (Isolated School) of the Campo Redondo village (1941-1942), at the Escola da Fazenda São Romão (School of São Romão Farm), 1942-1943, in the Kindergarten of Fernando de Noronha Island (1953-1955) and in the Kindergarten of Caicó city (1960-1969).

As it contemplates the theoretical and practical dimensions of pedagogical training and professional teaching, the methodological understanding defined by Catani (2000) has become pertinent, in order to carried out a simultaneous analysis in the teaching institutions of the theoretical and practical dimensions - formation and teaching - and beyond disciplinary knowledge. For Catani (2000, p. 596), in some way, “[...] the history of the professionalization of teachers integrates the history of educational sciences, specialized knowledge and, consequently, the means of dissemination”.

Pedagogical formation at Escola Normal de Natal

I finished the elementary course (primary) in 1935, at the age of fourteen. I asked Dad to continue my studies, as I just wanted to take the Normal Course (Teacher’s School), since I felt a real adoration for children [...]. What was certain was that I didn't want to stop studying, because my desire to be a teacher started when I was a child, when I played with my dolls (BEZERRA, 2005).

Prof. Marinete’s account, in her book of reminiscences, shows why she wanted to enter the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), with the conclusion of her first school education: her adoration for children. However, the regulations of the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), in force in 1922, provided that, at the time of registration (January), the candidate should be between 15 and 25 years old. As she did not include himself in this age group and due to the possibility of spending the year 1937 without studying, according to Prof. Marinete Bezerra (2005, p. 13), his father solved this problem as follows: “[...] he took my birth certificate as if I had been born on the 9th of January, because by that date I would have been fifteen and I was enrolled immediately”. On her move to Natal, she brought with her the teacher’s school uniform (sewn by her mother), described as follows: “The navy blue skirt all pleated, the white blouse with a thin bow, the same color as the skirt, black long socks and black low shoes.”

Between the year of her entry (1937) and the year of completion (1940) of studies, aimed at pedagogical formation for the elementary public teaching, the teacher’s school course in Natal was governed by the following legal statutes: Teaching Code (approved by Decree no. 261, of December 28, 1911), Organic Law of Education (approved by Law No. 405, of November 29, 1916) and the Regulations of the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), approved by Decree No. 161, of January 7, 1922. According to the Teaching Code (1916), this course aimed to form the professor from the point of view of intelligence, heart and character, with the necessary technical and professional guidance.

In those years (1937-1940), the purposes of the pedagogical formation of normalistas (students in the teacher’s school) to teach in the elementary teaching profession would be, in general, achieved by the convergence of the theoretical and practical dimension of the study programs, in addition to instructional activities. To give theoretical and practical solidity to the training of students, teachers had to employ the ideas of New Pedagogy, procedures and intuitive teaching method, observing their gradations and deductions similar to that of elementary education. An instructive activity for the benefit of body health and movement education would have been the sport of volleyball, practiced by Prof. Marinete, a member of the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal) team and its captain.

As a student at the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), he gradually graduated to teach in the elementary teaching profession, through the relevance of the contiguity of disciplines specific knowledge of the theoretical and practical dimension (learning stages to teach, for example) and instructional activities, assuming the obligation to take the following study subjects: Portuguese, French, Choral Singing, Mathematics, Drawing, General and Particular Geography of Brazil, General and Particular History of Brazil, Handicrafts, Home Economics, Physical Education, in addition to Natural History, Physics and Chemistry, Physical and Natural Sciences, Pedagogy, Pedology, School Hygiene and Pedagogical Practices. From 1937 to 1940, the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal) was run by professors Antonio Gomes da Rocha Fagundes and Clementino Hermógenes da Silva Câmara.

Observing the child in the school sociability environment would be a fundamental procedure for students, in order to perceive some of their readiness for learning, combined with physical, aesthetic, intellectual, moral and senses development. For the realization of a comprehensive education of the child, the Pedagogy program for the third and fourth years of the Curso Normal (Teacher’s School Course), condensed, to a large extent, the systematization of pedagogical knowledge (and the knowledge emanated from it in relation to methodologies and teaching didactics) aiming at the complete formation of students in the teacher’s school to teach children with uniformity. Pedagogy - its disciplinary knowledge and its repertoires - seemed to have as its ultimate purpose the theoretical effectiveness of frequent practices in the classroom. The Pedagogy Program designed the complete education of the child's educator by ordering the following studies:

Pedagogy Program. 3rd year - General Pedagogy. 1°) Pedagogy and related sciences. 2°) Education, concept, ends, classification, agents, subjects. 3°) Education of the senses. 4°) Theories of Pestalozzi and Spencer. 1°) General Teaching Methods. 2°) Methodology of Reading. 3°) Methodology of Writing. 4°) Methodology of Arithmetic and Geometry. 5°) Design Methodology. 6°) Mother tongue methodology. 7°) Lessons of Things Methodology. 8°) Methodology of Geography. 9°) Methodology of History. 4th year - Didactics. 1°) Preschool instructions. Kindergarten. 1°) Education in Western antiquity. 2°) Education in the first centuries of Christianity 3°) The rebirth and education of the 18th century. Rousseau. 4°) 19th century education. Pestalozzi, Froebel and Herbert 5°) Education in the contemporary age: Europe and America. 6°) Teaching in Brazil with the Republic. 9°) Teaching in Rio Grande do Norte state (PROGRAMA DE PEDAGOGIA, 1931-1941, p. 12-14).

In principle, among the theoretical references to support the practical dimension of child education, the pedagogical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Herbart Spencer, Friedrich Froebel, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Father Giord were recognized.

In turn, the growing enthusiasm for the study of disciplinary knowledge that integrates the theoretical and practical dimension, and the desire to win, to grow and to prepare the future professional contributed to Prof. Marinete successfully completing the Normal Course (Teacher’s Course) with success and enthusiasm.

In the registration book of classes certified by the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal), 1938-1944, on December 21, 1940, it is said that Prof. Maria Nazaré Gomes and 80 other fellow students (70 women and 10 men), in graduation solemnity, were graduated at Carlos Gomes Theater (now Alberto Maranhão), with professor of Pedagogy, Dr. Manoel Varela de Albuquerque, who received a special homage in the occasion.

On January 10, 1941, the director of the Escola Normal de Natal (Teacher’s School of Natal) issued the registration of Professor Maria Nazaré Gomes diploma in view of the average score of approvals in the four years of the Teacher’s Course (1st year, 8.8; 2nd year, 8.61; 3rd year, 8.90; 4th year, 9.18 and score of pedagogical aptitude, 9.0), with the inherent rights and prerogatives.

Initiation to teaching and the teaching profession

His father placed obstacles for her to go to an university in another city, justifying financial difficulties. On February 2, 1941, Prof. Marinete was in the village of Campo Redondo, in the condition of elementary teacher, approved in public contest in second place, nominated by the sixth Federal Interventor of Rio Grande do Norte, Rafael Fernandes Gurjão, who ruled the state for five years (November 24, 1937 to July 3, 1943), carrying out the plan for expanding elementary education for children, youth and adults to fulfill the expansion of school opportunities.

The appointment of Prof. Marinete to teach at the Escola Isolada (Isolated School) in the village of Campo Redondo (municipality of Santa Cruz) - by her report - brought joy and enthusiasm to parents and the children, who already wanted to know the day of enrollment. In two days, 100 children were enrolled to study in two shifts. On February 8, 1941 - “with a head full of theory, but without any teaching practice” -, together with an assistant, she opened her teaching career in a classroom with 50 children (in the morning shift) and, equally, with 50 children in the afternoon, with only a table that served as a bureau and a single chair; there were no wallets for children. They brought stools, boxes, empty kerosene cans from home, which served as a seat. The important thing, for them, was the learning of reading and writing, regardless of their material needs. Gradually, the school's classroom has been improved with the help of the people of the city.

In May, Escola Isolada (Isolated School) was visited by a teaching inspector, to observe the teaching methods and processes adopted by the teachers in the classroom. Prof. Marinete Bezerra (2005, p. 18) illustrated the protocol visit of the teaching inspector: “I received a visit from the teaching inspector who found everything in perfect order and congratulated me on being a newly formed person. I was happy and that compliment went to the Department of Education.”

At the time, there was a requirement to teach children to learn by the intuitive teaching method, recommended by New Pegagogy; but it was also necessary to educate them by interacting with the local community in the small village of Campo Redondo, through the socialization of school parties. At the end of the 1941 school year, Prof. Marinete planned a school party to socialize the artistic and school learning of the children, their students. In fact, this was one of the pedagogical responsibilities of the elementary teacher.

In June of the following year (1942), by designation of the director of the Department of Education (Prof. Antonio Fagundes), she was removed from the Escola Isolada (Isolated School) of the village of Campo Redondo to the Escola da Fazenda São Romão (School of the São Romão Farm), belonging to the municipality of Angicos, owned by an Englishman and located in her own residence, where she took up residence with her family (Mr. Kinkler and Mrs. Juraci) and a fellow teacher named Creuza. She would be the school director and teacher of the 3rd and 4th grade, while Creuza would be the teacher of the 1st and 2nd grade.

In fulfilling his duties as director and teacher at Escola da Fazenda São Romão (School of the São Romão Farm), she immediately inspected the two halls of the residence, designated for the classroom, in order to see if it was well ventilated and comforting, satisfying the pedagogical requirements prescribed by New Pedagogy. The following day, after a communication to the mothers of the children of the farm, he proceeded to enroll and prepare the weekly lesson plan. The classes started without any difficulty. In her view, everything was in order.

The furniture was all new and nothing was missing. We found maps of Brazil, Rio Grande do Norte, globes, geometric figures, eardrums, desks, blackboards, rulers, everything in perfect order. We were touched by so much organization, we were radiant (BEZERRA, 2005, p. 75).

In 1947, for almost two years on license (marriage, birth of her first daughter), she resumed teaching at the “Frei Miguelinho” School Group, in the city of Natal, replacing a second-grade teacher, who had requested license, and, then, to take special license, due to the successive birth of three daughters and a son, and due to their move to Rio de Janeiro. On her return to Natal (1952), she was appointed by the director of the Department of Education to work at Jardim de Infância Modelo (Kindergarten Model), located at avenue Rio Branco, where she stayed for a short time due to the birth of another daughter.

In November 1952, due to the transfer of her husband (Sergeant Arnaldo) to the 30th Battalion of the Army of the Fernando de Noronha Island, Northeast Brazil, she asked the governor to create a kindergarten to exercise her teaching, given the fact that she was a specialist in early childhood education. A room next to the school group was renovated and destined to the first kindergarten on the Fernando de Noronha Island.

In the well-ventilated kindergarten hall - according to his report -, bathrooms, toilets and sinks (short ones) were installed, in addition to tables with chairs and shelves. In January (1953), enrollment began, in his own residence, totaling 48 children aged 4 and 5, who would attend the morning and afternoon shift, including, free of charge, uniforms, shoes and socks. On Ash Wednesday, that same year, there was the solemn inauguration of the kindergarten, with the presence of enrolled children and their respective parents; the governor and his wife; in addition to the teachers of the school group and guests.

In her speech, Prof. Marinete demonstrated the conceptual understanding of the theoretical and practical dimensions of teaching children to learn in preschool education, mentioning, according to Fernandes (2018), the ideas of active pedagogies, formulated by Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, John Dewey and Jean-Óvide Decroly, whose conceptions resulted from the specialized knowledge disseminated through the pedagogical manuals of teachers, trainers of early childhood educators, Heloísa Marinho and Nazira Féres Abi-Sber.

By highlighting, in her reminiscence book, quotes from the work What is kindergarten, by Nazira Abi-Sáber (1965), Prof. Marinete Bezerra shows, as she did in her speech, that the convergence of the theoretical and practical dimension of teaching with the formative knowledge of the New Pedagogy and the intuitive teaching method would result, fundamentally, from the efficient pedagogical work of the teachers, in an allusion to Abir-Saber herself, as seen below:

Teachers should be reminded of three fundamental duties: 1 - Make all children happy by taking them to live together with people around them within the Christian norms and principles of cooperation and understanding. 2 - Recognize that a kindergarten program can only be complete if it includes many preparatory activities that facilitate the child's work in their future learning. It is evident that the kindergarten program, when rich in experiences and good learning situations, is an excellent way to prepare children to learn [...]. 3 - To give rise to a creative and spontaneous activity through artistic expression (ABI-SÁBER, 1965, p. 27).

At the time, in preschool education, taught in kindergarten, guided, among others, by the knowledge of New Pedagogy systematized by John Dewey, the child would be the starting point, the center and the end of the educational process of interaction and reconstruction of individual and social experiences. In reference to the children’s universe, she understood that, on the one hand, she should surround herself with joy, interest, imagination and spontaneity. On the other hand, teachers should have the training experiences to conduct teaching activities, combined with learning situations in contact with toys, games and different occupations, according to the unity of the child’s life and the affective, emotional and practical as a whole. The purpose of learning and the acquisition of school learning would then be determined by the child, since, for Dewey,

the quantity and quality of teaching, the child determines them and not the school subject to study. No method has any value except the method that directs the spirit towards its increasing evolution and progressive enrichment. The school subject under study is nothing more than spiritual food (DEWEY, 1978, p. 46).

In terms of the theoretical and practical dimension of teaching the child to learn in preschool education, through the formative knowledge of the New Pedagogy and its intuitive teaching method, it is possible to state that the teachers of the first kindergarten on Fernando de Noronha Island have this cultural capital? From the point of view of the dissemination of New Pedagogy in Brazil, it was a period of stable acceptance.

If the formative knowledge of New Pedagogy and its intuitive teaching method provided repertoires, precepts, procedures and scripts, aiming to conduct the preschool education of the child of 4 and 5 years old, Prof. Marinete, both in meetings with the teachers for planning weekly classes and at formation meetings, was training teachers in that first kindergarten in Fernando de Noronha Island through the instructive logic of the theoretical dimension of preschool education. For the success of teaching activities, combined with learning situations, she asked for attention and chose, once again, Abi-Sáber’s theorizations:

The kindergarten teachers were responsible for knowing the capacity of each child, their desires and interests, and, based on that, organizing a program that satisfies the real demands of children, giving students the possibility to acquire the skills, habits and, especially, attitudes indispensable to a complete and harmonious emotional and social adjustment (ABI-SÁBER, 1965, p. 27).

The practical dimension (guided by the intuitive teaching method procedure), the teaching activities, combined with the learning situations, on the one hand, would satisfy the wishes, interests and curiosities of the children’s universe; on the other hand, they would provide skills, habits and attitudes indispensable for a complete and harmonious emotional and social adjustment. In addition to this practical dimension, Prof. Marinete continued to reflect based on that literature, written by Abi-Sáber, who conceived a sharing classroom:

Experiences of respecting the rights and opinions of others and developing an interest in the well-being of all [...]; exercise varied opportunities for spontaneous, free, easy and clear expression (through the language of painting, drawing, manual activities, music, singing, rhythmic movements, dance etc.); opportunities to accept responsibility and gain independence. Thus making all children happy, taking them to live together with the people around them (ABI-SÁBER, 1965, p. 26-27).

Between December 1955 (when she went to live with her family in João Pessoa city) and July 1959 (when Lieutenant Arnaldo was transferred to the 1st Construction Engineering Battalion in Caicó city), she remained on license from teaching activities due to the birth of the sixth child (1958). In addition, she was appointed, through Ordinance of the Secretary of State for Education and Culture, Prof. Grimaldi Ribeiro de Paiva, to teach at the “Senador Guerra” School Group, in Caicó city.

In the city of Caicó (August 1959), when she was presented to the director of the “Senador Guerra” School Group, Prof. Raimundo Guerra, she said: “My specialty is kindergarten; I’ve been working with children ages four, five and six for a long time.” Prof. Raimundo Guerra replied: “But there is no kindergarten here maintained by the State. There is only one private kindergarten, which works at Santa Terezinha School.” He added: “You are going to teach in a 2nd year class, with students aged 12 and 13, who, by the way, are in need of a teacher.” In his book of reminiscences, she wrote down his first day at the “Senador Guerra” School Group:

I will never forget my first day of school with 2nd graders. When I entered the class with 30 students, I saw almost everyone shouting: “Good morning, teacher”, knocking on desks, talking loudly. I stood for minutes, looking, watching each one, without being able to talk about so much different emotion [...]. I know that the students noticed my disturbance, my anguish no matter how much I tried to be happy (BEZERRA, 2005, p. 543).

On April 4, 1960, Governor Dinarte de Medeiros Mariz officially opened the Training Center for the Elementary Teaching of Caicó (where the kindergarten was to function), which had the following composition, in accordance with Law No. 2,639 , of January 28, 1960: kindergarten; school of application and crafts; state college and pedagogical course.

The kindergarten, one of the levels of education of the Educational Center for the Training of the Elementary Teaching of Caicó city (later, Institute of Education), according to the Reform of Elementary and Teacher’s Education, was ordered by the Law No. 2,171, of December 6, 1957, which organized and laid the foundations for Elementary Education and Teacher’s Education for elementary schools. Guided by the Regulation of Elementary and Teacher’s Education of Rio Grande do Norte, February 1, 1960, the activities of this children school aimed at awakening and freely developing the child's skills.

As it could not be otherwise, Prof. Marinete was designated by Ordinance of the Secretary of State for Education and Culture, as the first director of the Kindergarten of the Primary Education Center of Caicó city, a position she held until 1969, being immediately summoned by the then director of the Institute of Education, Canon José Celestino Galvão, “to deliver a report of everything he needed” in this children’s school.

At first, according to Fernandes (2018), the kindergarten would be based on a conception of child and infantile activity according to the natural and spontaneous tendencies of early childhood so that it acted actively and intelligently in the community social environment, as Friedrich Froebel (1897) aimed when systematizing the ways of teaching and educating in his kindergarten, as did John Dewey (2002) in the kindergarten of his School Laboratory.

In the building of the Institute of Education, built in the Penedo neighborhood, each level of education corresponded to its own environment named “Block”. The kindergarten was located in “Block IV”, favorable to children’s activities, with a large outdoor area, with a playground and, inside, the pavilion for the 4th, 5th and 6th year classes, with sanitary facilities appropriate to the age of the student children. Everything focused on the child’s satisfaction. In line with what was recommended by Anísio Teixeira (1978, p. 53): “The child is the origin and the center of all school activity [...]”. The Kindergarten of Caicó city, since the enrollment of children, has been organized as a school from and for childhood.

The Kindergarten Activities Program in its theoretical dimension - according to Fernandes’ research (2018) -, valuing the social purposes attributed to the children’s school by John Dewey and Anísio Teixeira, and school knowledge, according to the centers of interest from Jean-Ovide Decroly, privileged the knowledge of Natural Sciences and Social Studies to teach children, formative activities (habits and attitudes of personal hygiene and good manners, integration and social coexistence); Language (orality, reading, creative composition, visual-motor coordination and written expression); Mathematics (geometric shapes, formulas, study of numbers and numerals); Natural Sciences (notions related to the child’s body, time, observation and experimentation of the natural environment) and Social Studies (notions about the child’s life at school and in the family, laterality, civism and commemorative dates).

In addition, it favored activities with games and recreation (games of movement, imagination and instruction); manual and artistic activities (study of colors, free and directed drawing, perforation, cutting and pasting, finger and brush painting, folding, color mosaic and seed collage) and festive activities (presentation of poems, songs and children’s stories dramatizations). The ABC Graduation Party, with the presence of family members, as well as political, religious and educational authorities, reaffirmed kindergarten as a school from and for children.

In terms of the practical dimension, more precisely, Prof. Marinete, together with the first educators of this kindergarten (Maria Dulcinete da Silva, Ivanice dos Santos, Elita de Araújo, Vera Lúcia Medeiros Vale, Maria Damiana de Jesus, Terezinha Medeiros, Maria Odete Diniz, Nilza de Oliveira, Josefa Maria da Soledade, Crezinha Medeiros, Estelita Dantas and Maria do Socorro Bezerra), planned a school schedule with five constituent stages: i) 7:30 am-8:30 am (routine activities: queuing, prayer, singing, reading the time, studying the calendar and taking attendance); ii) 8:30 am-9:10 am (formal and artistic works: time of communications and related activities); iii) 9h10 am-10h40 am (lunch, dental hygiene, recreation and rest); iv) 10:40 am-11:20 am (formal and artistic work: time for communications and related activities) and v) 11:20 am-11:30 am (preparation for departure).

From the Program of Activities, Prof. Marinete and the first educators, on the one hand, worked with the understanding of Maria Montessori (1965, p. 183-184, emphasis added by the author), that the child, to write, needed to “[...] perform two different kinds of movements: the one that reproduces the form, and the one by which the instrument is handled”. On the other hand, they worked with the “ABC of things”, systematized by Froebel (1897; 1902), who “teaches and educates by developing”, through the observation of material, the discrimination of properties, the synthesis and expression in forms of life, beauty and knowledge.

In terms of the theoretical and practical dimension, Abi-Sáber’s (1963) guidelines for the development of readiness relevant activities (the drawing and contour of geometric figures, numerals, letters of the alphabet), learned by children on the floor, on the board and in the activity notebooks.

Prof. Marinete and the first educators of this kindergarten, in order to teach the child to learn, sought to select didactic material strictly in line with the conception of child and child activity and according to the guiding pedagogical literature. In this sense, the children used the ABC booklet; the common pencil with rubber; the collection of colored pencils; the sketchbook, the sketchbook that used a brush and water to paint the figure; notebook to cover letters, numbers, lines and circles. The child-student should have a white “cloth backpack”, in combination with the school uniform, which corresponded to a white shirt, blue shorts, white socks and black shoes - for the boys; and a “gown type” dress, in blue checkered fabric, with a large front pocket, outlined with a beak and embroidered cambric, for the girls.

At the end of the 1960s, the family came to live in Natal city due to the continuing education of their children. At the beginning of the year 1970, she was assigned to manage the Kindergarten Anfilochio Câmara, belonging to Instituto Padre Miguelinho, located in the Alecrim neighborhood. In 1971, she retired after 30 years of teaching. She was happy to have done his duty, in favor of such a noble cause: Education. This story was already part of his professional teaching life. In fact, the theoretical and practical dimensions, their pedagogical training and the professional teaching of child educators.

Conclusion

Professors from the University of Geneva, from the research team on the Social History of Education, Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly (2017), considering the object - education, formation and teaching in their empirical research related to educational sciences and the didactics of disciplines - they observed that, due to the consolidation of educational systems in each nation, the formation of education professionals, which multiplied and specialized, would therefore produce an unceasing disciplinary (re)organization (by the way, school knowledge through teaching programs) and, equally, the didactics of the disciplines directed to savoir-faire, in addition to the theorization of this savoir-faire.

Henceforth, the theoretical and practical dimension of pedagogical formation and professional teaching are consubstantially interconnected, through the relevance of the domains of educational sciences and the pedagogical purposes of each school institution, guided by socio-professional demands, which are constantly renewed. Through the analyzes of Hofstetter and Schneuwly (2017, p. 118), in this institutional infrastructure, the intention is to discipline and socialize ways of thinking, doing and acting, “[...] which constitute the cultural foundations of society ”.

Keeping in mind the particularities of the institutional apparatus of the school system of teacher formation for the education of the child, the status of disciplinary knowledge (formative and didactic knowledge to teach with method), would be at the center of the theoretical and practical dimension of pedagogical formation and professional teaching. From the point of view of both dimensions, it is possible to say that the knowledge of educational sciences interferes, to a large extent, through pedagogical literature, in the act of educating, teaching, socializing and training. Finally, on loan from Boto (2004, p. 59), it can be said that this literature is the carrier of a scientific discourse that is moving towards “[...] rituals and internal procedures of the school: in its routine, in its actions, in its knowledge ”.

In this sense, the theoretical and practical dimension of the pedagogical training and the professional teaching of Prof. Marinete took place through the dialogue with an institutionalized literature of Educational Sciences. Consequently, the pedagogical formation and professional teaching of Prof. Marinete Gomes Bezerra culminated in the complexity of a relatively complete formation to carry out the integral education of the child-student of the public school.

Referências

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Received: January 26, 2020; Accepted: February 28, 2020

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English version by Affonso Henrique da Silva Nunes. E-mail: affonsohnunes@g-mail.com.

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