A educação como raiz: a trajetória de vida sindical de Valdirene Maria dos Santos Rosas (2011-2020)

Abstract

The goal of this research is studying the use of oral narratives about the union life trajectory of Mrs. Valdirene Maria dos Santos Rosas, by analyzing her educational practices within the Rural Workers Union of Rio Tinto - PB (STR/RT). This research began in 2011, the year when she took office as union president, and it ends in 2020, along with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Born in Sítio Curral de Fora, countryside of Rio Tinto-PB, the former elementary school teacher and catechist of the Catholic Church, Valdirene is the research object and writing source of this dissertation and for the history of education in Paraíba. This trajectory was investigated through memory reports, seeking to clarify how the processes of educational practices of the unionist occur and observing the possible vestiges of a formal education in the social spaces where popular education happens. In its theoretical and methodological nature, this research considers the theoretical contribution of the New Cultural History and it is based on studies on memory and oral history, in which Legoff (1990) and Thompson (2002) stand out; the studies by these authors reflect on the importance of oral narratives and of memory as a source of research for the understanding of subjects within history. This investigation took place through oral interviewing, with an interview script as its basis. Other sources were added as support for the progress of the research, evidencing the path taken by the unionist in popular education (Documentary minutes of the STR and photographs). Through oral narratives, the researcher gets to know the story, from the point of view of the one telling it, which provides a comparison between the previous knowledge that the researcher has about the research object and those that will be presented to them by the narrator. Getting to know the consequences of the unionist's educational practices within the union space leads us to understand, within this context, possible signs of an educational continuity, built at the heart of formal education, through which it is possible to highlight aspects that build the history of education.