The role of feminine civic societies and religious congregations in the history of educational and social change: A Portuguese case.

Author(s):

Helena Ribeiro de Castro

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 05, Women's Intellectual Networks in Transnational Perspective

Symposium

Time:

2008-09-11

08:30-10:00

Room:

A1 311

Chair:

Rebecca Elizabeth Rogers

Discussant:

Rebecca Elizabeth Rogers

Contribution

In the Portuguese mid 19th Century some young ladies joined in a civic society to take care of poor young girls’ education providing them the material conditions to attend school. The society’s work settled on the associates’ economical sharing through a short monthly allowance as well as on the accomplishment of each one’s obligations, which involved regular visits to the protected schools to evaluate the educational context’s quality concerning to the girls’ social and material needs, and the pedagogic organization developed by the teachers. This Society for the Protection of Young Poor Girls is quite similar in its organization to another one brought from France to Portugal some years earlier, the Society for Helpless Childhood (Sociedade das Casas de Asilo para a Infância Desvalida), but followed a sensitively different pedagogical thread that was the pedagogic project of its creator and long-life leader, Teresa de Saldanha. In 1868, the same aristocratic lady established in Portugal a feminine religious congregation of Dominicans. Besides the religious motivations and the peculiar life organization, those communities intended to dedicate their daily life to education and social protection in their neighborhoods, taking particular care of the sick ones and the poor girls that could not access elementary scholarization because of their social condition and environment. The specificity of this kind of communities, which members professed the three vows – poverty, chastity and obedience – seems to have had a range of advantages in assuming educational work. Many contemporary writers confirmed it, even some that were not religious. Some authors consider that being composed by women, the flourishing of new feminine congregations in the 19th Century, in Portugal as in other European countries, constituted a declaration of independence as these women broke off the social concept of what should be their life under men’s leadership and joined themselves to carry out a common project. The increasing of these feminine networks all over the country and also abroad in early 20th Century spread the effort of scholarization accordingly to a specific pedagogic project and reached an innumerous range of people that should have transmitted to their families and descendants at least part of the pedagogic values and the school traditions they had appropriated themselves.

Method

The research followed an interpretative/qualitative approach as it aimed to study a complex phenomena shaped by many elements historically and culturally situated. The problem from which this study emerged was to enlighten the not so well known work of a Portuguese pedagogue as well as the impact of the two associations that she founded. Thus there are primary sources, like her private letters, and two earlier published biographies about the same person. But there is also a bibliographical review trying to illuminate the process of maintenance of the most relevant pedagogic principles along the decades, from 19th Century to actuality and the importance of women’s networks in the history of educational change.

Expected Outcomes

The intemporal character of both societies, particularly the second one, explain somewhat the maintenance of most of the values and pedagogic principles inscribed in the initial pedagogic project, which seems to be connected to the existence of an although not always conscientious ‘community of practice’ where the religious community still plays a particular role.

References

Estêvão, J. (1983). Discursos parlamentares. Aveiro: Câmara Municipal de Aveiro. Fernandes, R. (2004b). Orientações pedagógicas das “Casas de Asilo da Infância Desvalida” (1834-1840). In M. Felgueiras, & M.C. Menezes (Eds.), Rogério Fernandes: questionar a sociedade, interrogar a história, (re)pensar a educação (pp. 453-475). Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hellwig, M. (2002). Colleges of religious women’s congregations: the spiritual heritage. In T. Schier, & C. Russett (Eds), Catholic women’s colleges in America (pp. 17-24). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Liberato, I. (2002). Sexo, ciência, poder e exclusão social. Lisboa: Livros do Brasil. Lino d’Assunção, T. (1895, Junho 27). As Terceiras de S. Domingos. O Dia. Lino d’Assunção, T. (1895, Junho 29). As Terceiras de S. Domingos. O Dia. Pina, M.B. (1891). Ordens religiosas. In Instituições Christãs, n.º 7, 2.ª série, IX, 193-212. Ribeiro de Castro, H. (2001). O ensino privado e a educação para todos – uma história pioneira. In B.D. Da Silva, & L.S. Almeida (Eds.), Actas do VI congresso galaico-português de psicopedagogia (vol. I, pp.751-764). Braga: Universidade do Minho. Ribeiro de Castro, H. (2002). Teresa de Saldanha – um projecto inovador no século XIX; uma interrogação para o século XXI. In M. Fernandes, J.A. Gonçalves, M. Bolina, T. Salvado, & T. Vitorino (Eds.), O particular e o global no virar do milénio: cruzar saberes em educação. Actas do 5º congresso da sociedade portuguesa de ciências da educação (pp. 539-547). Porto: Edições Colibri/SPCE. Ribeiro de Castro, H. (2003). Cartas de um outro amor: a paixão da educação no século XIX. In Revista Galego-Portuguesa de Psicoloxia e Educación, 8, [CdRom Anexo]. Ribeiro de Castro, H. (2004). A Portuguese school in the 19th century: reconstructing life from dead documents. Education-line. Leeds: British Education Index. May 26, 2004 from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003575.htm Ribeiro de Castro, H. (2007). O associativismo como estratégia educativa: uma experiência do século XIX. In E.C. Martins (Ed.), Cenários de educação/ formação: novos espaços, culturas e saberes. Castelo Branco: SPCE. [CdRom] Ribeiro de Castro, H. (in press). Difusão da cultura e promoção da vida: uma escola no centro de um bairro pobre na Lisboa do século XIX. In Actas do V congresso luso-brasileiro de História da Educação. Évora: Universidade de Évora. Rio Maior, M[arquesa de]. (1987). Fundação da Ordem das Terceiras de S. Domingos em Portugal. Lisboa: Irmãs Dominicanas de Santa Catarina de Sena. Thiaucourt, M.R. (1987). Madre Teresa de Saldanha: vida e obra. Lisboa: Irmãs Dominicanas de Santa Catarina de Sena. Turin, Y. (1989). Femmes et religieuses au XIX.ème siècle: le féminisme 'en religion’. Paris: Nouvelle Cité. Vaz de Carvalho, M.A. (1890). Crónicas de Valentina. Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (2004). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. May 19, 2007 from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

Author Information

Helena Ribeiro de Castro

Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação em Educação da Faculdade de Ciências

Carnaxide

174

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