A Escola Santa Teresinha e suas relações com a sociedade de Imperatriz/MA

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis is to analyze and understand how the Santa Teresinha School, founded on August 3, 1924, by religious of the Congregation of the Capuchin Missionary Sisters, through its educational and pedagogical organization, contributed to the historical and sociocultural formation of Imperatriz (MA). Among the sources that were used to reach the specific objectives are documents such as the registration books (from 1926 to 1961), minutes, enrollment books, book of distinguished visitors, provincial letters, among others that are in the school's collection and were made available for this research. Besides these sources, the oral ones were also fundamental to access the memories of those who lived that experience, in order to understand how the history of the school merged with the city's history and became a fundamental element for the society and culture of Imperatriz's citizens. In order to do this, seven women were interviewed who had experienced the school as students and also, some of them, as teachers. Along this thesis, we defend the idea that, besides its propedeutic contribution, the Santa Teresinha School, throughout the time, and through its didactic and pedagogical performance, related to the social and cultural network of the city, in a two-way movement, bringing the community to the school, and taking its precepts beyond the school walls, building a complex relationship that was and has been determinant in the construction, if not all, but a good part of the sociocultural structure and the memory of the city. Thus, it was evidenced that, over time, the school has entered the community and the community, in response, has incorporated the school as an integrated element to its social and cultural environment, establishing a relationship that, although complex, has been positive to the extent that it is reflected as a social memory and that is kept alive in the community.