Abstract

MAGALHAES GOMES, Maria Laura. Teaching arithmetics according to new education: contributions of two autobiographical writings for the history of mathematics education (Minas Gerais, Brazil, the first decades of the twentieth century). Relime [online]. 2011, vol.14, n.3, pp.311-334. ISSN 2007-6819.

This paper presents the results of a study on mathematics education according to the New Education movement in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the context of educational reforms promoted by the government in 1927-1928. Based on the autobiographical writings of two teachers involved with Escola de Aperfeiçoamento, an institution of continuing education for teachers created by these reforms, we investigate proposals for the teaching and learning of mathematics conveyed in this training and the ways in which this training was mobilized in school practices in relation to mathematics. The article unfolds in four parts. The first one presents considerations about autobiographical writing. The second one deals with the autobiographical writings and their authors, Maria da Gloria Arreguy and Alda Lodi. The following section is intended to examine the references to the teaching of arithmetics in elementary school in the autobiographical writings of both. Finally, the text concludes with some considerations about the contributions of these documents for the history of mathematics education.

Keywords : Autobiographical writings; Arithmetics teaching; New Education; History of mathematics education in Brazil.