The Song and the Mediation in History Textbooks in Collection History and Integrated Life of Nelson and Claudino Piletti

Abstract

In this paper we seek to understand how the textbooks of history, specifically the collection História e Vida Integrada (History and Integrated Life), propose the use of songs inside of its contents in the period of 1997 to 2007. We aim to investigate whether the textbooks in this collection feature the song as a historical source enabling the mediation between the sources and knowledge. Therefore, we understand that this discussion is essential since this collection has always had great acceptance by the teachers during the period investigated. We believe that the teacher makes use of several mediation tools that helps him in this process, including the song itself and the textbook, since we cannot limit the teacher’s action to be based only in the book. However, the textbook as a mediating artifact between the teacher and the historical sources should not characterize these sources in a simplified form, transforming them into a mere illustration of content or reflection of reality. The sources should play an essential role of meaning in the student's cognitive structure: to demonstrate the representations that certain groups have forged over the society they lived, how they thought or felt, how they are established in time and space; to serve for the student be able to make distinctions, abstractions that allows him/her to read the different temporalities in which he/she is submitted. With these concerns in mind, we did our research.