O livro como artefato cultural na filosofia panecástica de Jacotot

Abstract

In the search for historical sources that go back to the issue of public instruction in the Brazilian imperial period, we located numerous traces of materials and methods of teaching reading and writing that appeared in the reports of teachers, inspectors and directors of Public Instruction, provincial presidents, teachers' maps, compendiums, newspapers, among other sources that, in a way, left traces of the daily life of primary schools. Among these sources, Albuquerque (2023) presented a struggle of representations in the field of reading and writing instruction between subjects who defended the Castilho Method developed by the Portuguese António Feliciano de Castilho (1800–1875) and supporters of Universal Education - Panecastic Philosophy, developed by the Frenchman Joseph Jacotot (1770-1840).This paper will address Joseph Jacotot's pedagogical experience with his Dutch students in relation to the French language. The teacher used the book "The Adventures of Telemachus," by the writer Fénelon, to introduce the study of French to a group of students who had never had contact with the language. Therefore, it was possible to understand that Fénelon's classic allowed a prior connection of the subjects with previously ignored knowledge, something that initiated a differentiated learning process in relation to the subject and the written text, leaving the following question: what is the power of the book in the emancipatory pedagogical experience proposed by Joseph Jacotot? It is, therefore, a methodological work with historical sources that circulated, to some extent, in the practices and representations of public instruction in the Brazilian empire.