O ensino de história regional e local nos anos finais do ensino fundamental da SEMED/Manaus : da criação à extinção de Fundamentos de História do Amazonas

Abstract

This research aims to understand how the discipline Fundamentos de História da Amazônia ¬(FAH – Foundations of Amazonian History) was created, developed, and later extinguished within SEMED/Manaus in regard to educational policies that established the teaching of regional and local history in the period ranging from 1991 to 2009. Said research is based on theoretical and methodological assumptions of historiography from a social and cultural history perspective that analyzes primary and secondary sources obtained through bibliographical, documentary and field research. The teaching of regional and local history in Amazonas is an old claim, tying back to the 3rd decade of the 20th Century, backed up Amazonian historian Arthur Cezar Ferreira Reis’ postulations. However, such discipline only became autonomous in 1989, when State Law no.1.906/89 established that Amazonian history teaching by means of FAH throughout the state education system. FAH, the discipline, provided students with the opportunity to identify themselves as historical subjects belonging to a historical, social and culture reality from where their identities originate from. Besides, it also gave way to a counterpoint to a purely Eurocentric history, giving voice to those “marginalized”, “excluded”, those who lived “in the bottom”, often people living in locations equally “marginalized” and “excluded”, seeing through the lens of the dominant class. Introduced on SEMED/Manaus’ education system in 1991, FAH during its run was marked by negligence on the Secretary’s part, more specifically due to how long it took for a curriculum to be set up and the sheer lack of distribution of education materials for its proper teaching. Political, economic, and ideological motives led SEMED/Manaus to remove FAH from its curriculum altogether by 2009. With that, the Secretary favored the enfeeblement of students’ understanding of identity. Thus, one can infer that this research contributes to the comprehension of aspects inherent to the history of education and teaching of regional and local history of Manaus, Amazonas and this portion of the Brazilian Amazon.