Research assesses the importance of school archives for history

A reflection on the urgency of investments in public policies aimed at the creation and preservation of school archives. This is what the article The importance of school archives for history and the guarantee of rights: the case of rights: the case of the Vocational Gymnasiums of São Paulo (1961- 1969) proposes, which was published this week in the Revista Acervo do Arquivo Nacional.
The article is based on research carried out by professor Margarida Maria Dias de Oliveira, from the Department of History (Hist) at UFRN, linked to the Center for Human Sciences, Letters and Arts (CCHLA), and by her doctoral student, Caio Rodrigo Carvalho de Lima. The central idea of ​​the study arose from the need, observed in the History Teaching discipline, to preserve collections that record everyday classroom practices, offering a broader view of education, beyond results.
Added to this, the relevance of the topic is magnified by the historical context of the Vocational Gymnasiums, an innovative educational initiative, repressed by the Military Dictatorship, which can only be known in greater depth thanks to the teachers who decided to keep these files, even at the risk of arrest.
According to Professor Margarida, the experience was only known through the testimony of former teachers who worked at the Gymnasiums, including the coordinator of this experience, who was arrested during the Military Dictatorship.
The study also analyzed items preserved by these educators and a film produced by a former high school student, which allowed a thorough and in-depth investigation into the context of education at the time, the relationship between the collections and the preservation of didactic relationships in schools and the repression of the Dictatorship.
The magazine is available online and can be viewed via the link.