Entre os muros da escola democrática: estudo de caso de escolas públicas em Maceió – AL

Abstract

The present study focuses on a school architecture was constructed in the period of Democratic Education in Brazil, from the 1950s until 1990s. The Democratic Education in this country was configured as a changing moment in education, appearing at the beginning of the twentieth century and lasting until the current days. Its construction made it possible to disassociate a relationship of power and submission, favoring the birth of the collective and autonomous subject, through which the education would be centered on the student. Because of this, it was necessary to formulate a new school space that reflected the new ideals of education. What emerges then is the question of research, which occurs in the following question: Does the discourse of Democratic Education really materialize in the school space? Do the spaces that were constructed in this period still instrumentalize discipline? From this problematic, the general objective of this work proposes to spatially characterize the educational practices in the school space, that was constructed in the period of the Democratic Education (20th century) in Maceió - AL. This research is a case study of the State School Professor José da Silveira Camerino from the Center for Applied Research - CEPA (1958) and the Local School Maria Carmelita Cardoso Gama - CAIC (1996) which were analyzed through a qualitative approach of the phenomenon, with the participant observation method. Both schools had their differentials due to the moment they were implanted, however, the two had the same ideal: the search for a democratic education. Despite this, it can be concluded, through the characterization of practices in space, that both are still guided by control and discipline, both in their practices and by what architecture instrumentalizes and communicates at the same time. School architecture, however, is not complete in building construction. The actors of the school, whether they are educators, pupils, administrators or other employees, who occupy spaces, continue to build it and begin to subvert their limits imposed, whenever necessary, in the quest for autonomy.