The homeland idea in textbooks aritmetica elementar: Book 1 and Nossa Pátria

Abstract

This work is part of the reflection developed within a research group which deals with, among other topics, school subjects. It is also part of two broad researches developed at doctoral level. Reflections presented by such group allowed us to make approximations between the objects of study that have some resemblance, by having as reference the Brazilian primary school textbooks in the First Republic. Thus, the objective of this text is to understand and reflect on the idea of homeland, present in the textbooks, Elementary Arithmetic Book – 1 (1919) written by Georg August Büchler and Our Motherland (1917), by José Francisco da Rocha Pombo, both aimed at primary school. This article has as theoretical support the concept of Cultural History presented by Chartier (1990) and Barros (2006). Based on this concept, both textbooks and, in particular, the patriotic messages contained therein are interpreted in relation to the nationalist feeling that was intended to be deployed in Brazil during the period. The interpretative exercise is mediated by the fact that both books constitute distinct works from the fields of knowledge from where each one comes, i.e., Math, through Arithmetic, and History. Both Arithmetic and History textbooks largely comprehend nationalist yearnings of a political regime that sought to affirm itself in the country during the late 19th century to the 20th century.