The creation of the Superior Council of Public Instruction of Pará (1864) control to hegemonizeAbstract
This article aims to understand the process of establishing the Superior Council of Public Instruction of Pará in 1864. To achieve this objective, we conducted historical research with document analysis of sources, as well as a bibliographic review of works addressing the topic, based on some concepts from the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. The main results of this study emphasize the creation of the Council and the definition of its functions. We infer that the institution can be interpreted as a Private Apparatus of Hegemony, constituting a space that materializes the concept of the Expanded State, as it served as a stage for the dialectical relationship between civil society and political society.
Keywords:
History of Education; History of Educational Policies; Antonio Gramsci
Resumo
O presente artigo tem como objetivo compreender o processo de instituição do Conselho Superior de Instrução Pública do Pará no ano de 1864. Para o desenvolvimento desse objetivo, realizamos uma pesquisa histórica com análise documental de fontes, bem como um levantamento bibliográfico, revisando obras que abordam a temática e baseando-nos em alguns conceitos do filósofo italiano Antonio Gramsci. Como principais resultados deste estudo, damos ênfase à criação do Conselho e à determinação de suas funções. Inferimos que o órgão pode ser interpretado como um Aparelho Privado de Hegemonia, constituindo-se como um espaço que materializa o conceito de Estado Ampliado, uma vez que era palco da relação dialética entre a sociedade civil e sociedade política.
Palavras-chave:
História da Educação; História das Políticas Educacionais; Antonio Gramsci
Resumen
El presente artículo tiene como objetivo comprender el proceso de creación del Consejo Superior de Instrucción Pública de Pará en el año 1864. Para desarrollar este objetivo, realizamos una investigación histórica con análisis documental de fuentes, así como una revisión bibliográfica de obras que abordan la temática, basándonos en algunos conceptos del filósofo italiano Antonio Gramsci. Como principales resultados de este estudio, destacamos la creación del Consejo la determinación de sus funciones. Inferimos que el organismo puede interpretarse como un Aparato Privado de Hegemonía, constituyéndose como un espacio que materializa el concepto de Estado Ampliado, ya que fue escenario de la relación dialéctica entre la sociedad civil y la sociedad política.
Palabras clave:
Historia de la Educación; Historia de las Políticas Educativas; Antonio Gramsci
Introduction
Addressing the History of Educational Policies, this article aims to analyze the institution of the Superior Council for Public Instruction of Pará [Conselho Superior de Instrução Pública do Pará] (CSIPP), created in 1864 by the Regulation of March 1st, which established new rules for public education in the province. We start from the understanding that educational policies have a historical trajectory, configuring themselves as a theme focused on investigating the process of institution, implementation and evaluation of these policies, in conjunction with the political, social, economic and cultural contexts of each period and location. For Sanfelice (2004),
a history of educational policies can also be the object of a denser theoretical treatment, when using specialized bibliography, from the classics, which address complex matters regarding the nature of the State, matters of “power”, matters of civil society and the role of social and/or public policies within modern societies. It is more about understanding the role those educational policies have played in societies than studying the sources that translate the recording of their generation and give them materiality (Sanfelice, 2004, p. 124).
The author also states that “it would be interesting to also discuss the sources of the history of educational policies (in Brazil) during the 19th century” (2004, p. 129), period in which the object of this study is located: the Superior Council for Public Instruction of Pará.
We consider that historical research on education councils, specifically in the period proposed here, is relevant for the analysis of educational policies, as it allows for identifying permanence and changes in educational organization within different historical contexts. We also understand that an investigation into the emergence of these bodies contributes to the historical debates on the processes of change in educational management, since “the history of education, as a systematic and intentional repository of educational memory, will be an indispensable reference in the formulation of an educational policy one wishes to propose consistently, especially in moments marked by attempts at educational reforms” (Saviani, 2001, p. 1).
In this sense, this study presents itself as a contribution to filling a significant gap in the historiographical studies of education, since, although there is consolidated research on school institutions, teacher training and public policies, investigations focused on Councils for Public Instruction are still relatively scarce. By problematizing the role of the Instruction Council in the construction of management, teaching professionalization and teaching systematic organization models, this article contributes to enriching the repertoire of historical bases of educational administration in Brazil, offering elements that contribute to understanding the permanence and ruptures that continue to influence the formulation of contemporary educational policies.
To achieve the objectives defined for this study, we carried out historical research, in which the “historian needs to remain ‘critical’, that is, their spirit must organize the research by formulating problems and hypotheses and relying on primary and secondary sources of all types, carefully and rigorously criticized” (Reis, 2011, p. 9). We adopted, as methodological procedures, the survey, cataloging and analysis of documentary sources - such as laws, decrees, regulations, statutes and newspaper articles , among others -, in order to support the process of investigating the institution of the Superior Council for Public Instruction, within the time frame of its creation.
It was crucial to pay attention to the fact that part of the sources collected refers to the educational legislation of the time, representing a synthesis of interests and objectives that can be understood as the materialization of the policies idealized by the hegemonic subjects of that moment. However, when implemented, these policies generated contradictions that emerged from disputes among groups and their particular interests, intensifying and complexifying the debate, which led to the proposition of new alternatives and the approval of new laws. In this way, the legislative journey continues to be a process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis (Castanha, 2011). This way of seeing the legislative process allows us to look at the law
as mediation and reinforcement of existing class relations and, ideologically, as their legitimizer. But we must go a little further in our definitions. Because we saying that existing class relations were mediated by law is not the same as saying that the law was nothing more than the translation of these same relations, in terms that masked or mystified reality. This may oftentimes be true, but it is not the whole truth. For class relations were expressed, not in any way one liked, but through the forms of the law; and the law, just as other institutions that, from time to time, can be seen as mediating (and masking) existing class relations (such as the Church or the media), has its own characteristics, its own history and independent logic of development (Thompson, 1987, p. 353).
Throughout history, the law has also been, and should continue to be, an instrument to combat privileges, which makes it a central element in the dispute for hegemony (Castanha, 2011). Therefore, educational legislation, when used as a historical documentary source, proves to be of great importance for the production of historical-educational knowledge. However, this analysis must not be carried out mechanically, considering only its letter, the visible text, the law itself, without contextualizing it. For this reason, it is necessary to establish connections between educational legislation and hegemonic political power, the socio-political project in force and the social practice of the time. Equally fundamental is to consider the reactions of society or sectors directly impacted by legal measures, whether concerning acceptance or resistance, so that their role and influence on education is fully understood. After all, it is necessary to understand that legislation can concretize and/or legitimize a dispute defined within civil society (Castanha, 2011; Sheen, 2007).
Furthermore, seeking to deepen our examination of the sources, we used studies by Antonio Gramsci, with the perspective of appropriating suitable concepts for a critical analysis of the object proposed here, since his formulations favor the discussion of our object based on theoretical elements about culture - an essential concept for understanding education -, since, for him, culture is a way of living, thinking and operating in a society in history. In this sense, it is necessary to highlight that
as a thinker and political activist, Gramsci was concerned with identifying the strategies used by the various fractions of the ruling class in order to obtain the active or passive consent of society as a whole to his conception of the world, his political project and the cultural and political formulations and practices that would contribute to the implementation of an intellectual and moral reform of the working classes towards a socialist society (Martins; Neve, 2014, p. 348).
We are also interested in considering, among Gramscian contributions, the one that refers to the role of educator exercised by the State in a broad sense, bearing in mind that, when analyzing the History of Educational Policies from a Gramscian perspective, “we exercise a critical look at the power structures that organize the educational field and at the actions of the different subjects who compete for the direction of these policies” (Ribeiro; Damasceno; Golobovante, 2025, p. 731).
Thus, we understand the role of the Council in consolidating educational policies as part of a project to form a new school culture, to be experienced by institutions and their agents. From this perspective, the Council became a fundamental mechanism in cultural formation, and a decisive one in the transformation or perpetuation of dominant ideologies, being used as a space of dispute for the formation of values, habits, beliefs, customs, knowledge and behaviors.
Public instruction in Brazil and in the Imperial Grão-Pará
According to Lombardi (2008), the imperial period is characterized by the first initiatives to organize education as a responsibility of public power, albeit in a limited way and marked by discontinuity. This organization involved both the central government and provincial administrations in creating structures and regulations for national instruction. In this context, after D. Pedro I issued the Charter of October 15, 1827, establishing the creation of schools in all cities and towns, the Additional Act of 1834 promoted an administrative decentralization, transferring responsibility for primary education to the provinces which, with rare exceptions, such as São Paulo, lacked technical and financial infrastructure to fulfill this mission. In that regard,
the decentralizing demands that shook the country from north to south, forming separatist movements, which emerged during the Regency period, threatened state power and were responsible for the constitutional reform of 1834. This reform expressed the compromise between radical and conservative tendencies, as it maintained the moderating power, the perpetuity of the Senate and the rejection of municipal autonomy. However, they implemented decentralizing measures, already enshrined in the Criminal Procedure Code of 1832, abolishing the Council of State and creating the Providential Legislative Assemblies, which began to exercise several responsibilities, including the competence of public legislation, in accordance with determinations of the General Assembly (França, 1997, p. 81).
During the Second Empire, between 1840 and 1888, the financial neglect of education became evident. Only 1.80% (one and eight tenths per cent) of the annual budget was allocated to the sector, with 0.47% (forty-seven hundredths per cent) for primary and secondary education. Comparatively, military spending absorbed around 20.86% (twenty and eighty-six hundredths per cent) of the budget, as reported by Rui Barbosa in 1882. This discrepancy illustrates the historical neglect of public education, preventing the implementation of a national education system and leaving Brazil with a significant educational deficit that persisted over the centuries (Saviani, 2018).
Approved in 1841, Law no. 97, which regulated public primary and secondary education in the Province of Grão-Pará, was only effectively implemented 14 years later, showing the slowness of the public authorities in prioritizing education (França, 1997). This situation reveals a scenario of precariousness and neglect in relation to public education during the imperial period. The primary school curriculum was restricted to basic content concerning reading, writing, arithmetic and religious doctrines, reflecting a limited conception of educational training. Despite attempts at regulation, the structural changes necessary to transform public education were not effectively implemented.
The creation of schools remained insufficient in the face of population growth, and the lack of supervision compromised the quality of education. Thus, the educational model of Grão-Pará during the imperial period remained elitist, serving only a small portion of the population and leaving public education in a state of abandonment (França, 1997). In that context, it is important to point out that
two years after the 1845 report and six years after Provincial Law No. 97, the results were not positive; poor teacher training was mentioned as one of the main reasons for such failure, followed by lack of investment in school structures and of supervision of teachers’ activities, who often failed to fulfill their obligations due to the large distances that separated schools located outside the capital and the authorities residing in the capital (Santos; Damasceno, 2019, p. 72).
This context highlighted structural and institutional challenges faced in the execution of educational policies in the imperial period in the Province of Grão-Pará. The persistence of poor teacher training as one of the main problems reflected the absence of initiatives that would influence the creation of normal schools and the valorization of teaching, which was treated more as a vocation than as a profession worthy of investment and recognition. These elements contributed to the fragility of attempts to organize teaching, since, although the qualification of teachers was highlighted, in the discourse, as essential, in practice it did not receive due attention from the authorities.
Furthermore, the precariousness of the school infrastructure and the lack of supervision showed the mismatch between educational guidelines and their practical implementation, reinforcing the need for the establishment of bodies and/or instances that would effect control by the State - such as the Superior Council for Public Instruction, whose institution process is presented as the object of this study. It is necessary to emphasize that, in this context, proposals for educational reform emerged, with projects to create councils at the national level, among which we highlight the General Council for Public Instruction (1846); the Superior Council for Public Instruction (1870) and the Superior Council for National Instruction (1882) (Bordignon, 2020). Even though these projects were not approved and/or effectively implemented, it is possible to identify a continuous interest in creating this type of body at a national level over the years.
Thus, the creation of the Councils for Public Instruction constituted a significant movement towards the institutionalization of education in Brazilian provinces throughout the 19th century. Among them, we highlight the creation, in 1825, of the General Council in Minas Gerais, a body that would deliberate on the organization of schools and the proposal of measures aimed at enhancing public education, although subordinate to the central authority (Fernandes, 2018).
In Maranhão, the 1849 regulation established that public elementary school teachers in the capital were called upon to join the Lyceum Congregation whenever issues relating to primary education were discussed - such as the choice of textbooks or reform of regulations -, with the Congregation, in these cases, being called Council for Public Instruction (Maranhão, 1849 apud Castro, 2009, p. 91).
In Rio Grande do Norte, the Law of 1825 provided for a Council composed of the General Director, two Atheneu professors, a primary education teacher and two citizens appointed by the president of the province, with the task of adopting teaching methods, evaluating school books and proposing improvements to public education (Rio Grande do Norte, 2004, p. 150 as cited in Morais; Stamatto, 2018). These examples show that different provinces sought to create consultative and administrative bodies in order to organize, supervise and regulate teaching, reflecting a growing concern with the standardization and supervision of schools.
In Pará, the creation of the Superior Council for Primary and Secondary Instruction, in 1854, was part of this same context of administrative and pedagogical consolidation, taking on roles similar to those observed in other provinces: supervising the functioning of schools, deliberating on pedagogical and administrative issues and proposing improvements in public instruction. Situated within the scope of the Couto Ferraz Reform, the Pará council sought to implement educational guidelines and inspection mechanisms in both public and private education, linking instruction to the ideas of civilization, progress and order that guided the period. Thus, the experience of Pará, although later than that of Minas Gerais, Maranhão and Rio Grande do Norte, dialogues with these provinces, showing a convergent effort to create bodies capable of organizing and rationalizing the provincial education within a project for a modern State in formation (Glauber, 2016).
In 1879, Leôncio de Carvalho1 implemented his reform, introducing significant changes to education in Brazil, especially with regard to primary and secondary instruction (Carlos, 2023). Some of the main changes included, precisely, the expansion of the Directive Council, which began to include representatives from different sectors of education - such as college deans and principals of normal and professional schools, as well as representatives elected among teachers and citizens of the municipality. The reform regulated the supervision mechanisms for public and private education, assigning this responsibility to the Minister of the Empire, the General Inspector and the Directive Council, aiming to guarantee the quality and conformity of teaching methods (Carlos, 2023). The Council also gained responsibility for examining practical teaching methods and systems, in addition to creating subjects and defining the content of exams. These changes reflect the government’s effort at the time to modernize education and make it more accessible and organized, aligning it with the ideals of progress and civilization of the time.
With the expectation of propagating ideals of reason and progress, contrasting with the colonial past and practices deemed outdated, instruction was seen as essential to promoting a spirit of association and collaboration, which would help overcome localist tendencies and move towards progress. The idea was that, by educating the population, especially the lower classes, it would be possible to form a more conscious people capable of actively participating in the construction of the nation. To achieve this ideal, it became essential to create educational guidelines and monitor public and private education, as part of an effort to ensure that education was aligned with the ideals of the new nation. Furthermore, control over what was taught and how needed to be under the responsibility of a specific body for this purpose.
It is in this context that the Directive Council for Primary and Secondary Instruction emerged, chaired by the Inspector General and composed of several members, including college deans and teachers. The Council was responsible for examining teaching methods, creating subjects and regulating the examination system, in addition to supervising educational practices, shaping a supervision and control structure aimed at ensuring that education was aligned with the ideals of civilization and progress promoted by the reforms of the period.
That said, it is necessary to highlight that, throughout the 19th century, schooling in Brazil was driven by different mechanisms that structured national education. Among them, the following stand out: the creation of specific legislation and the formulation of educational policies that established guidelines for teaching; the organization of a bureaucratic system aimed at supervising and controlling public instruction - responsible for recruiting and managing teachers, as well as for constituting networks of influence and power in the educational field -; and the production of statistics on the population and the functioning of education, fundamental to consolidating State representations and improving the administration of education in the context of modern governmentality (Gondra; Schueler, 2008).
Given this scenario, the creation of educational councils in the imperial period - such as Pará’s Council for Public Instruction, established in 1864 - represented an attempt to organize and modernize provincial public education, seeking to overcome the structural precariousness that characterized some regions. However, despite the official discourse emphasizing teacher qualification and monitoring of school practices, the scarcity of financial and administrative resources prevented the implementation of the projected reforms in many places. Thus, even though these proposals showed a growing concern with public education, their partial implementation highlighted the gap between current legislation and educational reality, as studies by education historians of the imperial period show.
Thus, the creation of educational councils in the imperial period represented an attempt to organize and modernize public education, seeking to overcome the structural precariousness at the time. However, despite the official discourse emphasizing the importance of teacher qualification and monitoring of practices, the lack of financial and administrative investments was one of the factors that made the implementation of the projected reforms unfeasible. Thus, although projects to create councils and school organization standards were formulated, their implementation was restricted to a few locations, reaching mainly urban centers with a greater administrative presence.
The creation of the Superior Council for public instruction of Pará
Provided for in Law No. 97 of 1841, as Damasceno (2017a) points out, the Instruction Council was conceived as a body responsible for improving the quality of teaching by regulating programs, evaluating teachers and rewarding students. However, there are no records of its effective functioning or the fulfillment of its duties at that time. This non-implementation reflected the structural fragility of educational policies at the time, highlighting the lack of concrete mechanisms to guarantee the implementation of the proposed reforms, which was reinforced by the province’s presidential report of 1852, which found the absence of an effective administration of instruction and the persistence of problems such as the lack of supervision and the precariousness in teacher training (Damasceno, 2017a). Thus, instruction in the province remained marked by disorganization and the absence of measures that would promote significant improvements.
Around twenty years later, through the Regulation of March 1, 1864, the Superior Council for Public Instruction was created, chaired by the Director of Public Instruction, among whose responsibilities would be “direction and inspection of teaching in public and private educational establishments” (Seidl; Paiva, 1869, p. 68). At that time, the Council was composed of the Director of Public Instruction, three teachers from Collégio Paraense, one primary education teacher, the president of the City Council and one citizen of “recognized ability” (Seidl; Paiva, 1869).2
In the aforementioned regulation, it was established that “in order for the council to deliberate, half and one more of its members must be present, including the president. Whatever the matter on which the president is deliberating, he will only have the tie-breaking vote” (Pará, 1864, art. 6º). The highlighted excerpt points out characteristics of the Council’s functioning, emphasizing the need for a quorum and the role of the president in deliberations. The minimum quorum requirement - with the presence of more than half of the members, including the president - suggests a concern with the legitimacy and representativeness of the body’s decisions, which would prevent deliberations from being carried out with insufficient participation, ensuring that decisions reflect the majority position of the Council.
Furthermore, by restricting the president’s vote only as a casting one, the regulation limited, in a certain way, the president’s intervention in the deliberation process and aligned the Council with the decentralization policy which, according to Nascimento, Lombardi and Saviani (2006), began with the Additional Act of 1834, when responsibility for public instruction was passed on to provincial governments. This provision underlines the intention that decisions be the result of a consensus or majority among members, preserving the autonomy of the body.
The functioning of the Council, as described in the regulation, can be associated with the concept of the Extended State, formulated by Antonio Gramsci, according to which the State is constituted as the synthesis of political society (governmental and legal institutions and instances) and civil society (space of non-governmental organizations, ideas, values and consensus). In this model, the State would not be limited to coercive force, but would include mechanisms of political and cultural articulation, that is, structures that shape consensus through institutional practices, which is why Gramsci
draws attention to the fact that the State constitutes a balance between political society and civil society; therefore, he modifies the usual concept, expanding it. In doing so, he maintains the coercive elements of the State, but adds consensus, to indicate that the hegemony that a class exercises over the entire society, through the State, does not only result from coercive power, but also from persuasion. In the Notebooks, Gramsci says that coercion and consensus are predominantly characteristic of political society and civil society respectively. This means that, in both spheres of the Integral State, we find coercion and consensus, but, while coercion is predominant in political society, consensus is predominant in civil society. The relationship between political society and civil society is dialectical, of unity and distinction (Jacomini, 2020, p. 5-6).
In the case of the Council, the quorum requirement and the weight of the president’s role, whose vote consisted only of a tiebreaker, reflect a dynamic in which power is diluted and deliberated in a collegiate space that potentially represents both the interests of the government (political society) and social desires or pressures (civil society). In this sense, we can exemplify it as an experiment by the Extended State in articulating consensus and strengthening the political project of the ruling class, which seeks to maintain an appearance of collective participation. Based on this perception, we believe it is important to highlight the Council’s legal powers:
Art. 7. The council is responsible for:
§ 1. Examining the best teaching methods.
§ 2. Providing an opinion on the textbooks that should be adopted.
§ 3. Proposing to the provincial government the creation of schools in places where there is a need for these establishments.
§ 4. Building foundations for any reform or improvement that education needs.
§ 5. Organizing every year, a list of teachers to be sent to the president of the province, according to their seniority and the class to which they belong, indicating which ones, through their zeal, intelligence and dedication to teaching, deserve to rise from the lower to the higher class.
§ 6. Giving an opinion on the request of teachers who, with more than 15 years of effective practice, consider themselves entitled to the bonus provided for in article 42.
§ 7. Judging disciplinary infractions subject to the penalties mentioned in art. 54 (Pará, 1864, art. 7).
In general, article 7 and its paragraphs reflect the supervisory, deliberative, propositional and arbitral functions of the Council for Public Instruction in the educational sphere. Its responsibilities for examining teaching methods and issuing opinions on compendiums to be adopted show a concern with the standardization of teaching, seeking an alignment of pedagogical practices developed at the time.
From this perspective, the attributions established in the regulation begin to act as mechanisms of ideological control, since both the teaching methods and the compendiums adopted constitute privileged means of transmitting certain knowledge and values. When analyzing this competence, we return to Choppin (2002), for whom the textbook, in addition to transmitting knowledge, skills and attitudes considered essential to the reproduction of society at a given historical moment, also conveys moral, religious and political values in a more or less subtle way.
In this sense, the school manual is not a simple neutral pedagogical support, but a cultural device that selects, organizes and legitimizes certain contents as worthy of being taught, guiding students’ views on the world and contributing to the naturalization of a certain social vision. The choice, production and circulation of textbooks, therefore, involve disputes and interests, revealing their function as instruments of socialization and ideological formation.
From a Gramscian perspective, this dimension acquires centrality when we observe that the Council, when defining which books would be adopted and which contents should make up the curriculum, acted as a private apparatus of hegemony. By controlling the production, circulation and legitimacy of textbooks, the Council reinforced the political and cultural project of the ruling classes. Thus, when exercising these functions, it not only regulated instruction, but contributed to the construction and maintenance of a social consensus, shaping the formation of the population in accordance with dominant interests, as
hegemony in its relationship with the State becomes complex as an ideological domain and is also aligned from the construction of world views, shared with the classes in dispute, which go deeper into the construction of a common bourgeois identity in its values, religious and world convictions that are consolidated in a civilizing process, hence the need for a moral and intellectual reform of society defended by Gramsci (Oliveira Junior, 2020, p. 164).
In this scenario, the Council would act as an apparatus capable of carrying out a civilizing project that sought to consolidate, through education, a common identity, defining educational methods and compendiums in an attempt to promote the dissemination of the intended morality. The process of choosing school content, for example, was not neutral or without intentionality; on the contrary, it was guided by political and ideological interests that sought to shape the society of the time while also seeking to legitimize certain values in opposition to other possible worldviews.
Through the determination of a curriculum, school manuals, methods and social interactions, the CSIPP presented and reinforced a certain worldview which, by aligning itself with the interests of the ruling classes, disseminated a cultural and historical perspective that isolated other voices and experiences. Therefore, when reflecting on the mechanisms of social transformation,
Gramsci did not leave out the debate about the school and the apparatuses of political and cultural hegemony, through which the dominant classes manage to attract, convince and direct, based on their own cultural schemes, not only the set of class fractions associated with them, but also the dominated and subordinate classes (Marcassa; Pessoa, 2024, p. 3).
In paragraph 3 of article 7, the Council was configured as a proponent of the educational project expansion policy, as it was tasked with suggesting to the provincial government the creation of schools in places where there was a “need”. This prerogative leads us to conceive it as a mediator between the State and society in meeting social demands, but also as a protagonist in defining public policies according to criteria and interests that reflect certain priorities. After all, it remained undefined who would decide on this so-called “need”, which raises questions about which parameters guided this definition, who established it and who it served.
The apparent neutrality and lack of transparency in the identification of the “need” deserves a critical analysis, as what is considered a priority is always relative and is subject to political, economic and social determinations. This indeterminacy makes it possible to conceive and elect regions or populations aligned with the hegemonic project, which could be prioritized, while others would simply be disregarded or “forgotten”, favoring, in general, demands that were constituted, over time, “as political currency in the expansion and maintenance actions of school institutions” (Almeida; Melo, 2017, p. 85).
As for paragraph 5 of the aforementioned article, this is characterized by being a reward or punishment mechanism, reinforcing a circuit that can influence people’s behavior, eliciting feelings of advantage or protection, alongside feelings of fear and apprehension. Rising from the lower to the higher class represented a prize or recognition granted as retribution or compensation for some action or attitude, while remaining in the lower class could be interpreted as punishment, aiming to reestablish the disturbed order, also having a preventive character, aimed at discouraging undesirable behaviors.
It is from this perspective that we can understand state legislation as an apparatus of reward and repression, as Gramsci observes:
Law is the repressive and negative aspect of all positive civilizing activity carried out by the State. The “rewarding” activities of individuals, groups, etc., should be incorporated into the conception of law; praiseworthy and meritorious activity is rewarded in the same way as criminal activity is punished (and punished in an original way, allowing the intervention of “public opinion” as a sanctioned) (Gramsci, 1989, p. 97).
Thus, as we have already mentioned, this measure can be seen as part of a strategy to consolidate the hegemony of the ruling classes, considering that, through the CSIPP, the State sought not only to regulate, but to shape the behaviors and social practices of education professionals. By defining parameters for teaching appreciation, the Council directly influenced the professional profile of the time, promoting a collective identity among teachers that was aligned with established ideals. Such meritocratic control reinforced the Council’s understanding as an important part of legitimizing the values and practices of the current educational structure, reinforcing its role as mediator between state power and civil society, even if this was, in the minority, represented by citizens of “recognized ability” (Seidl; Paiva, 1869).
In this sense, the definition of the teaching profile in nineteenth-century Pará did not occur spontaneously, but was the result of a political project that sought to establish an ideal teacher model, guided by attributes such as morality, vocation, prudence, discipline, knowledge and the ability to civilize (Damasceno, 2017b). These values were repeatedly defended by provincial presidents and other authorities as a condition for overcoming what was identified as the precariousness of public instruction, especially in primary education.
According to Damasceno (2017b), the constant criticism of the supposed low quality of teachers - sometimes seen as unskilled or unsuitable, sometimes as victims of an omissive State - thus revealed a continuous effort to fit teaching into behavioral and pedagogical standards that served the broader objectives of training a citizen suitable for the ongoing modernization project. In other words, the search for defining this profile met the need to create a teaching body aligned with values and practices that favored the consolidation of a cultural and social hegemony, anticipating later movements of regulation and control of instructional professionals, which would be strengthened through the actions of the Council for Public Instruction.
Along the same line of reasoning, paragraph 6 of article 7 corroborates the role of the Council for Public Instruction as a mediating body in the valorization of teaching staff, by assigning it the responsibility of evaluating requests from teachers with more than 15 years of effective practice who claimed the bonus provided for in article 42 of the public instruction regulation analyzed here. This device shows the institutional recognition of experience in teaching, establishing criteria for granting benefits, which, in its turn, can be interpreted as an attempt to encourage continuity and commitment to the teaching career.
Analyzing this paragraph in the light of the Gramscian theory, it is possible to understand the function of the Council also as an example of the idea of an extended State, which not only administered or deliberated on political-administrative matters, but also sought to legitimize educational structures, fulfilling a formative mission, whose purpose would be to “always create new and higher types of civilization, adapt the ‘civilization’ and morality of the broadest popular masses to the needs of the continued development of the economic apparatus of production, therefore also physically elaborating new types of humanity” (Gramsci, 1989, p. 91).
This measure, while seeking to meet the demands of teachers - which strengthens the idea of meritocracy and encourages behaviors aligned with the state project -, consolidated the teaching role as an active force in building a society. Thus, the Council fulfilled a dual function: bureaucratic and hegemonizing, promoting technical-administrative order and consolidating adherence to the current system through practices that recognized and rewarded the careers of these professionals in the exercise of their functions.
Paragraph 7 of the same article gave the Council for Public Instruction the responsibility of judging disciplinary infractions committed by teachers, applying the prescribed penalties. This attribution reinforces the role of the Council as a regulatory body, highlighting its disciplinary and controlling function over the teaching staff. It was a device that highlights the concern with maintaining standards of conduct among teachers, who should act in line with the values and objectives of the current educational policy. By centralizing the judgment of these infractions in the Council, the State sought to consolidate order and morality in the educational field, making teaching a universe under control - from a social and cultural point of view -, bearing in mind that, from a Gramscian perspective, such a function can be interpreted as a mechanism for building and maintaining hegemony, since the norms imposed by the Council reflected and reinforced the dominant ideological values, aligning the behavior of teachers with the political and social project of the time.
School inspection, since the imperial period, was directly related to the effort to control and standardize teaching work, as Pantoja and Damasceno (2020) point out when stating that the General Law of 1827 assigned the responsibility for supervising schools to the presidents of the provinces, gathered in Council. This attribution allows us to understand that the organization of the public education system was, early on, associated with the need for surveillance, guidance and correction of pedagogical practices. Throughout the Empire, this function developed into a new division of teaching work, which began to include, in addition to teaching and school management, the role of the school inspector, conceived as a central figure to guarantee compliance with norms and the dissemination of a model of teaching and teaching conduct aligned with the interests of the State.
In this context, the Council for Public Instruction acted as a regulatory and disciplinary body, defining parameters of evaluation, morality, competence and professional behavior, in order to form and maintain a teaching staff adjusted to the current civilization and modernization project. Thus, school inspection functioned not only as an administrative mechanism, but as a political instrument of symbolic and practical control over teachers, contributing to consolidating the hegemony of ruling elites in the educational field.
Furthermore, this disciplinary scope of the Council illustrates the articulation between political society and civil society, central concepts in Gramsci’s theory of the extended State. The Council, as an apparatus that combined educational and punitive functions, operated as a means by which the State not only administered education, but also shaped conduct and social practices, strengthening its influence and control over the subjects involved in the educational process, which draws our attention to the fact that
the organizations and institutions of the Integral State (political society and civil society), in general terms, are in accordance with the type of production relationship of a given society, just as the latter, to some extent, in accordance with the former. This does not mean eliminating the contradictions of this eminently dialectical relationship; on the contrary, all of Gramsci’s effort to build concepts that allow for a better understanding of the State relates to the complexity that this relationship entails in practice (Jacomini, 2020, p. 8).
The disciplinary nature of the Instruction Council, as described in paragraph 7 of the analyzed article, can also be related to the Gramscian concept of Extended State, by covering this relationship between political society and civil society, through coercive and conciliatory processes, insofar as
the State must be conceived as an “educator”, since it tends to create a new type or level of civilization. Due to the fact that the economic forces are essentially acted upon, the apparatus of economic production is reorganized and developed, the structure is innovated, it should not be concluded that the superstructure elements should be abandoned to themselves, to their spontaneous development, to a casual and sporadic germination. The State, even in this field, is an instrument of “rationalization”, acceleration and Taylorization; it acts according to a plan, pressures, incites, requests and “punishes”, because, once the conditions are created in which a certain way of life is possible, “criminal action or omission” must receive a punitive sanction, of moral scope, and not just a judgment of generic dangerousness (Gramsci, 1989, p. 96-97).
From this perspective, the Council is not limited to a bureaucratic function, but would play a role in the dissemination of hegemony, acting as a private apparatus of this process by judging disciplinary infractions and administering sanctions. Thus, as already mentioned, it would operate as an instance of control that combines coercion (political society) and persuasion (civil society).
This dual role highlights the Council as an instrument for consolidating the values and practices desired by the authorities, shaping the conduct of professionals and ensuring compliance with established standards. As Gramsci suggests, the State is not only an apparatus of domination, but also a space for building consensus and cultural transformation. In this context, the Council has the possibility of reinforcing ideological hegemony by legitimizing its authority both through coercive power and through the ability to align education with the goals of the ongoing political project, promoting a moral and intellectual reform that would integrate segments of the school communities of that period.
The regulation, by determining that “the council will be governed by an internal regulation drawn up by it and approved by the president of the province, in which the days on which it will operate will be marked” (Pará, 1864, art. 7th), highlights the articulation between relative autonomy and at least bureaucratic control, a characteristic of the functioning of institutions in the context of the Extended State. This device indicates an attempt to balance two dimensions: the independence of the Council to regulate its own functioning and the need for legitimization and supervision by the provincial government, represented by the president.
On the one hand, the regulation gives the Council the possibility of establishing rules that meet its specificities and specific demands related to its operation, strengthening its role as a technical and deliberative body. On the other hand, the requirement for approval by the president of the province reveals the mechanism of political control exercised by political society, ensuring that the Council’s actions are aligned with the interests and strategies of government power, in a dynamic that involves the interaction between civil and political societies, consolidating the role of the Council as a space for negotiation and implementation of state hegemony.
Final remarks
The present study enabled us to understand the Superior Council for Public Instruction of the province of Grão-Pará, created in 1864, as a space for interaction between political society and civil society, based on the Gramscian theory of Extended State. The study showed that the Council was not limited to administrative functions, but had the potential to play a central role in the construction of an educational project aligned with state hegemony.
From the analysis of the 1864 Public Instruction regulation, especially with regard to the Council, it was possible to infer that the body could operate as a private apparatus of hegemony, considering that, as far as prescribed, the Council combined mechanisms of coercion and consensus to shape the conduct of teachers and define the direction of education in the province. Its deliberative structure, the quorum requirement and the role of the president as mediator in cases of ties reflect the search for legitimacy in decisions, while ensuring state control over public instruction.
Furthermore, the powers attributed to the Council - such as supervising teaching, proposing reforms, selecting teaching methods and materials and evaluating teachers - showed their normative and disciplinary character, necessary for the dissemination of the hegemony of the ruling class at the time. The prerogative to apply penalties reinforces its function as an instrument of social and cultural control, promoting an alignment of education with the interests of the dominant classes and consolidating values and practices that supported the current order.
Another relevant aspect discussed was the articulation between the relative autonomy of the Council and the control exercised by the provincial government, when we relate the need for approval of its internal regulation by the president of the province, which highlights the subordination of the educational sphere to state guidelines, materializing the construction of hegemony based on the interaction between political society and civil society.
Finally, we highlight the understanding that the Superior Council for Public Instruction can be interpreted as an important instance in the educational structure of the imperial State, playing an active role in the intellectual and moral formation of society. The creation of the body shows how education was mobilized as an instrument for consolidating the political and cultural project that aimed to guarantee the reproduction of the power structure, thus contributing to the understanding of the historical processes of educational regulation and their implications for the dynamics of power relations in imperial Brazil, especially in provincial Pará.
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Peer review rounds:
R1: two invitations; two reviews received.R2: two invitations; no reviews received.R3: one invitation; one review received.
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1
Carlos Leôncio de Carvalho (1847-1912), born in Iguaçu (RJ), was a deputy, Minister of Business of the Empire and professor at the Law School of São Paulo. Author of the Decree of April 19, 1879, he promoted broad reform in public education, defending freedom of education and the inclusion of enslaved people and adults in schools, which generated great controversy. His work marked a decisive stage in the history of Brazilian education (Machado, 2006).
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2
Institution opened on July 28, 1841, constituting the main public educational institution in imperial Pará.
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How to cite this article:
Ribeiro, M., Damasceno, A., & Almeida, K. N. C. de. The creation of the Superior Council of Public Instruction of Pará (1864): control to hegemonize. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, 26, e401. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4025/rbhe.v26.2026.e401en
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Funding:
The RBHE has financial support from the Brazilian Society of History of Education (SBHE) and the Editorial Program (Call No. 30/2023) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
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Licensing:
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4) license.
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Data availability:
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Edited by
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
