PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND TEACHING PRACTICE OF WOMEN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN MARANHÃO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Abstract

With the aim of analyzing how the gradual insertion of women into elementary education teaching occurred in the 19th century, this study explored two aspects: reflection on the pedagogical knowledge that constituted the object of the professional practices of the first female teachers in Maranhão; and the characterization of the teaching practice of these women in the first decades of the 19th century. The research, of a historical nature and with an evidentiary approach, was developed through bibliographic and documentary review. The sources used include correspondence between teachers and the Government Secretariat, belonging to the collection of the Public Archive of the State of Maranhão (APEM), as well as official documents of the provincial administration, published in the first newspapers of the Province and available in the Digital Newspaper Library of the National Library. The information obtained allows us to observe elements of similarity and difference between female and male teaching. When women entered public teaching, still without normative structuring, the demands of the profession were equivalent for both sexes. With the advancement of the organization of the provincial education system, new regulations were instituted, reinforcing socially consolidated gender inequalities. The context of women's teaching practice up to the first four decades of the 19th century reveals a process of transferring gender inequalities from the social to the professional sphere, accompanying the expansion of opportunities for women to access the teaching career.