Instituto profissional agroindustrial São José: assistência e educação de menores desvalidos em Dianópolis-to (1953-1973)

Abstract

This thesis investigates the trajectory of the São José Agroindustrial Professional Institute (IPASJ), known as the "Dianópolis Juvenile Institute," located in the former northern Goiás region, now the southeastern part of the state of Tocantins, during the period from 1953 to 1973. Situated within the field of History of Education, with an emphasis on educational institutions of a welfare nature, the research stems from theoretical and empirical concerns regarding the existing gaps in regional historiography about IPASJ. The overall objective was to investigate the history of the São José Agroindustrial Professional Institute and its role in early childhood and adolescent education in Dianópolis, in the former northern region of Goiás, now southeastern Tocantins, between the years 1953 and 1973. The methodological approach followed these steps: first, a bibliographic survey was conducted (written- bibliographic corpus through the state of knowledge of theses and dissertations produced in Postgraduate Programs located in the Northern region of Brazil); second, the organization of the thesis corpus, divided into a documentary corpus (official and iconographic documents) and an oral corpus based on qualitative research grounded in Thematic Oral History. The methodology adopted is anchored in Cultural History and Oral History; the corpus consisted of deteriorated institutional documents found in a deactivated physical space on the IFTO campus in Dianópolis, as well as interviews with former students and former employees. The analysis of the sources revealed tensions between the laudatory discourses constructed... by the institution's founders and the silenced experiences of those who lived through the institution's daily life. The thesis demonstrates that the Institute was built upon a philanthropic-paternalistic logic, aligned with the political and economic interests of the region. Its educational proposal articulated primary education with labor practices, under the strong influence of moralistic and hygienist ideals that marked the policy of child protection in Brazil during the republican period. The research also highlights the ambivalent character of the institution, sometimes seen as a space of opportunity, sometimes as a place of confinement and exclusion. The originality of the study lies in the unprecedented approach to IPASJ as the central object of analysis, filling a significant historiographical gap in the Tocantins Amazon. The contributions of the work extend to the understanding of educational institutions as spaces of symbolic dispute and the shaping of subjectivities. The research acknowledges its limitations regarding the scarcity of sources and suggests future developments that broaden the temporal scope and deepen the listening to former inmates. By rescuing narratives, the conviction is reaffirmed that Writing the history of education is also an act of listening, empathy, and courage. Listening to silences, empathy with the pains and scars of the past, courage to question the structures that have sustained and continue to sustain inequalities.