<b>Schools gathered and school groups: traits of technical-scientific modernity in elementary teaching (1889-1929)

Abstract

This article aims to reflect about the different public institutional spaces destined for Elementary Education in the First Brazilian Republic (1889-1929). Having as documental source the reports of inspectors and general directors of Education of São Paulo, as well as testimonials from Elementary Education teachers from the first decades of the 20^th century, we discuss the different existing institutional models and their social contexts of insertion, emphasizing the modernization of school space and their educational practices.  The search for an objective, rational, and scientific framework, grounded in operational results from scientific development and the application of technology, takes charge of motivations of the period and reaches the school. The remodeling of physical space, as well as the practices instituted in its interior, demonstrate the application of this knowledge to the school. However, with the analysis, it is possible to identify that much of the criticism made to the isolated schools and the schools gathered are prospected by the professional benches occupied by those who make criticism. The view of the education director does not coincide with the professors’, thus having different, and sometimes antagonistic representations, of a same social phenomenon, as Roger Chartier identifies.