The Brazilian edition of Zaba’s Method and its uses in schools in Bahia (1870-1871)

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the materiality of the Brazilian edition of Zaba’s Method, authored by Polish writer Napoleon Felix Zaba, aiming to unveil its connections with observable school practices based on records produced in 1871 by two teachers in Bahia’s public education system: José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty and João Theodoro Araponga. This is a bibliographic and documentary research. By addressing the printed material as a multifaceted cultural artifact (Chartier, 1990, 1998) and a product of the educational industry (Meda, 2015), I present the formal characteristics and content of this educational resource. Furthermore, I examine the materiality of the method in the context of teaching practices and school culture, analyzing its applications and adaptations, to demonstrate that knowledge and teaching methods are reworked and reinvented via pedagogical experiences and practices (Schueler, 2005), as well as revealed in individuals’ interactions with the world in its material form (Vidal, 2006).

Keywords:
history of education; teaching history; materiality of the school; teaching methods