A mulher professora na cidade de São Paulo: política, imprensa e universidade (1971-1990)

Abstract

This research investigates both the education and the working conditions offered to teachers for the elementary school grades, hereafter represented by women, who account for 81,3% of the total number of teachers in the country. The moment in time chosen, from 1971 to 1990, comprises periods of Military Regime (1964) and of the way towards political re-democratization (1985), when the educational policy that led to the general reform of education was outlined, and brought to effect by Law 5540, passed on November 28, 1968. This law brought the regulations for the organization and functioning of graduate studies. Furthermore, Law 5692, taking effect from August 11, 1971 reformed elementary and high school. We aim at evaluating the enforcement of these Laws, which intended to broaden access to schools, verifying the obstacles that fostered the so-called Scholarly Failure along their implantation process. This paper assembled statements by male and female teachers, and other sources of information such as newspapers and magazines from those days, population census, academic papers and the writings on the subject, which, brought together, helped the historic reconstruction of the facts, having as the axis the woman-teacher living in São Paulo. Analysis allowed us to confirm that the legislation followed a particular pathway: aiming at enlarging the number of seats in schools, it failed to take into consideration both the enhancement of education and professional competence, and subjective actions as a final product of teaching actions. Thus, solutions brought about did not lessen the shock between hope and reality, and downgraded the relationships of strength and power that constituted themselves within the educational community. The imposed law belittled the disastrous, even un-educational situation as far as both teachers and students were concerned, and underestimated its social consequences. Hence, the failure of the educational system was not significant if seen from the viewpoint of teachers of the public schools in the city, but was understood as negligence in the application of public educational policies for a long period, and the State was therefore to blame, during the military and the civil governments alike