The “working” and the “apostolic” teacher: contributions to the history of the ...

• Author(s): Madeira, Ana Isabel
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/7205
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
• Subject(s): História da educação colonial; Formação de professores; Lusofonia; Educação Comparada
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The text addresses the issue of teacher training in a colonial context, underlining the ambiguity of the republican discourse, which in a lay educational setting, defended the sacralisation of the teaching profession in the colonies. A relatively unexplored subject in the history of Portuguese education, it is defended that the republican initiatives put into action in the organization of primary education in Mozambique, when comparing discourse to actual accomplishments, did not give rise to considerably different results to those that had been gained since the fall of the Monarchy. Nevertheless, the republican governors made profound alterations to the professional statute of colonial primary teachers, particularly in ensuring their equivalence to the metropolitan teachers as well as in terms of the importance attributed to the teachers involved in the crusade for the civilization of the natives. Furthermore, there are clear lines of continuity between the discourse on teacher training during the First Republic and the beginning of the Estado Novo, particularly in the definition of a curriculum adapted to their (teachers) overseas role.