ABSTRACT
The first landmark event of a national policy about professional formation in Brazil was the foundation of 19 Schools of “Aprendizes Artífices” under a federal decree in 1909. After finding numerous mistakes in dissertations and theses, which presented the origin of the federal network of professional and technological education, using the terms “school of artificers apprentices” adding “e” between the terms, then becoming “school of apprentices and artificers”, had presented the challenge that fostered the research for this article, in order to try to understand this use and present the diachronic significance, from a conceptual, historical and socioeconomic point of view. This research employed a quantitative search of the uses of the terms in computer search engines, from which the analysis was referenced in bibliography related to the historical, economic and social aspects, reflected in the conjunctural use and the linguistic significance about each one. Finally, the reflection seeks to translate the political, legal and social interest of that expression, which is related to the structure of an era and reveals that the proper use of the term, while preserving its originality, translates a meaning that is dialectical, both in representation and on the material basis of the society of that time.
Keywords:
Professional education; School of Artificers Apprentices; History of education; Semantics