Banca de DEFESA: JEFFERSON MELO DA SILVA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : JEFFERSON MELO DA SILVA
DATE: 22/07/2025
TIME: 08:30
LOCAL: Auditório 02 do PPGEd - NEPSA II
TITLE:

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KEY WORDS:

Welfare; Female education; Church and State; Poverty; Orphanage Padre João Maria.

PAGES: 302
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Educação
SUMMARY:

This doctoral thesis investigates the practices of assistance and education directed at poor girls in the Orphanage Padre João Maria, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, between 1920 and 1943. Based on the analysis of historical documents, we demonstrate that the institution operated as an educational space deeply permeated by strategies and tactics articulated among the political, religious, and legal fields. Anchored in documentary analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework (Aróstegui, 2004), this study mobilizes sources that enable a historical reading of the institution’s operations (Magalhães, 2004), articulating the political, social, and symbolic representations that shaped its existence (Chartier, 2002; Bourdieu, 2009). The research is grounded in governmental decrees (1920–1943) and issues of the Catholic newspaper A Ordem (1935–1943), with the aim of understanding how the orphanage was impacted by different political conjunctures, by the growing influence of the Catholic Church, and by transformations in public policies related to assistance and education. In the course of the analysis, we discuss the foundations of philanthropy (Marcílio, 2009; Rizzini, 1990) and the mechanisms of social organization of poverty (Viveiros, 2011), operated through the logic of biopolitics and economic rationality, as well as the mechanisms of governmentality (Foucault, 2017). We also examine how the Catholic press constructed and disseminated representations of the institution — at times reinforcing its religious identity, at other times legitimizing its insertion into the educational system and the prevailing welfare practices. The results reveal an intricate network of relationships among the State, the Church, and civil society, demonstrating that the orphanage was, over time, redefined both in its functions and in its representations. Thus, it is configured as a privileged object for understanding welfare policies directed at poor childhood and female education within contexts marked by a strong entanglement between religiosity and public power. We conclude, therefore, that the institution represented a significant advancement in the consolidation of welfare and educational policies in Rio Grande do Norte, highlighting its historical relevance in the processes of sheltering, disciplining, and vocational training of the orphaned girls under its care.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - 1149638 - ANTONIO BASILIO NOVAES THOMAZ DE MENEZES
Externa à Instituição - Francinaide de Lima Silva Nascimento - IFRN
Externo à Instituição - IRAN DE MARIA LEITAO NUNES - UFMA
Externo à Instituição - JOSE MATEUS DO NASCIMENTO - IFRN
Presidente - 1181646 - KILZA FERNANDA MOREIRA DE VIVEIROS
Interna - ***.088.424-** - MARLUCIA MENEZES DE PAIVA - UFRN
Interna - 2527711 - OLIVIA MORAIS DE MEDEIROS NETA