From “Imperishable Light” to “Sacrificed Class”: teaching in the municipal civil service framework at Duque de Caxias (1947-1954)

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to investigate the role played by the political society in developing public primary teaching staff in Duque de Caxias County, based on City Council Minutes. The present investigation starts with the installation of the City Council (1947) four years after county emancipation and goes all the way to the end of the second term of the Legislative House (1954). Documentary research methodology was applied to Minutes of City Council sessions and it enabled mapping initiatives taken by the executive and legislative powers concerning educational matters, as well as analyzing the interests and disputes allowing job position creation and remuneration processes applied to the teaching category. The theoretical framework has followed notes by Antonio Nóvoa (1991) about the history of the teaching profession, which encourages investigating how the State, herein represented by municipal public power, has acted to create job positions, as well as to allocate and set teachers’ salaries. Teacher insertion modes adopted to the civil service framework, as well as surveillance, inspection and report practices performed by the population and local councilors, represent part of the expectations about the social function of teaching professionals, who are considered the imperishable flame that, however, remained as sacrificed class at the time to have its rights covered.