ABSTRACT
This article analyzes why John Baptist De La Salle, important precursor of modern pedagogy, is little known in Brazilian educational research. In its first part, it presents an overview that classifies Brazilian academic research on De La Salle into three categories: omission, ignorance, and recognition. The second part submits three causes for such classification: the hegemonic anti-religious tendencies in Brazilian educational research; Foucaultian interpretations that disregard Foucault’s own thesis on how time penetrates the body; the oversimplification of the teaching proposal of secular morality to replace religious morality, as formulated by Durkheim. Finally, the article offers a hermeneutic exercise, based on the Guide of the Christian Schools, aiming to overcome the omission and lack of knowledge about La Salle in Brazilian academia. The article concludes by pointing out that certain key-aspects of De La Salle’s pedagogy are valuable in strengthening contemporary political efforts towards a public, universal, and free education.
KEYWORDS:
La Salle; Guide of the Christian Schools; Foucault; Durkheim; educational research