Grupo Escolar Rural José Rollemberg Leite (1953-1974): uma escola rurbana

Abstract

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Brazil witnessed a movement to expand rural primary education, through federal campaigns, while, simultaneously, cities such as Aracaju underwent rapid urban growth. It is in this dual and contradictory context that this thesis investigates the historical formation of the José Rollemberg Leite Rural School Group (Grupo Escolar Rural José Rollemberg Leite - GERJRL), established in 1953, seeking to understand how this institution, created under the aegis of pedagogical ruralism, had its trajectory and identity shaped by the relationship with its surroundings and progressive absorption by the city. To this end, the research combined documentary analysis and Oral History (Alberti, 2005; 2012; Thompson, 1998), according to the theoretical and conceptual framework of Cultural History, based on the propositions of Roger Chartier (1988; 1991), and the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (1964; 1989; 2007). Reflecting this approach, the investigation showed that the students were mostly black and from low-income families, with high rates of grade failure and school dropout. The main conclusion indicates that, although founded with resources and guidelines for rural education, GERJRL did not constitute itself as a typically rural school group, which represents a paradox between the educational policy that created it and the practices and sociocultural transformations imposed by its location on the frontier of urban expansion.