The Sampaio Dória Reform: teachers, power and figurations

Abstract

Teaching reforms are the object of research in Education. The 1920 reform of public teaching in the state of São Paulo was analyzed, led by Sampaio Dória, from a standpoint of legal prescriptions and its implementation in a specific reality, the Normal School of Piracicaba/SP. The implementation counted on a group of teachers, which is our privileged object of research. From such group, we learn the establishment of a power gradient producing social figuration out of recognized pedagogic, literary, artistic and political nationalistic domains. The power and figuration concepts proposed by Norbert Elias provide us with theoretical support. The 1920 reform, a network of interdependent people and its unfolding are analyzed in this article.