Educational projects for Minas Gerais in the 19th century: foreign nations in the showroom

Abstract:

This study aims at presenting the results of a research on the supposedly successful experiences of foreign countries which served as guidelines for both political and educational leaders as they elaborated the public education proposal for the province of Minas Gerais in the time comprised between the Independence (1822) and the Proclamation of the Republic (1889). Among the various projects which contributed to the formation of the Brazilian state, those pertaining to education seemed to have gotten bigger investments. The main empirical and methodological foundations of this study were the analyses of the records of the province’s presidents. As to the theoretical-methodological propositions employed in approaching the examples, we consider that the ‘circulation’ of knowledge - promoted by the mobility of individuals as well as by the circulation of printed materials - brought about the conditions which enabled the appropriation of the so-called foreign expertise.

Keywords:
foreign nations; public education; Minas Gerais