A história do Liceu Provincial do Amazonas (1864 – 1869): formação das elites e crescimento da cidade de Manaus

Abstract

This study, located in the field of education history, aims to reconstruct the context of the founding of the Liceu Provincial Amazonense during the years 1864 to 1869. Our search lies in the understanding of the elements that influenced the local educational policy, highlighting the catalysts behind the creation of the Liceu. In addition, we seek to explore the active participation of the different social layers in the city of Manaus, investigating how they received the instruction offered. The relevance of this research emerges from the singularity of the school institution in question, as it was the pioneer of secondary education in Amazonas, and until then, there is no substantial collection of research and publications addressing its history. In view of this, our time frame is delimited since the Brazilian Constitution of 1824 and the Additional Act of August 6, 1834, which decentralized the creation of primary and secondary schools to the provinces. However, we opted for a more indepth analysis from Regulation No. 13 of August 31, 1864, which established the foundations for the construction of the first secondary school in Amazonas, until Regulation No. 18 of March 14, 1869, which officially gave rise to the Liceu. In this context, a second objective arises: to understand the relationship between the founding of the Liceu Provincial Amazonense and the interests of the local elites in the period prior to the economic boom of the rubber industry. To carry out this analysis, we adopt memory as a category of analysis, inspired by (MOTTA, 1998). In terms of methodology, we base ourselves on the work with documentary sources, in line with the approach proposed by (LUDKE; ANDRÉ, 1986), as well as on subaltern studies as proposed by (NERY; NERY; DIAS, 2020), in addition to the analysis of school legislation, following the perspective outlined by (FARIA FILHO, 1998). All of this theoretical and methodological framework is treated in a qualitative way, as advocated by (MINAYO, 2009).