EULÁLIA HENRIQUES MAIMONE: A PIONEER OF EDUCATIONAL AND SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT

The historical research on educational and school psychology in Brazil is still incipient when compared to the history of other fields of psychological knowledge. Biographic approaches, for example, are even scarcer. In order to contribute to fill the gap, this article presents historical elements of the trajectory of Eulália Henriques Maimone: teacher, pioneer and protagonist in the area of educational and school psychology in Minas Gerais (Triângulo Mineiro region), with his work at the Federal University of Uberlândia. This study relied upon oral history as methodology. The interviewee was the first educator of psychologists in educational and school psychology, in addition to founding the state representation of the Brazilian Association for School and Educational Psychology in the region. The first years of action, the challenges and the coping that she has undergone illustrate the recognition and creation of spaces for discussion and improvement of this area of psychology.

Keywords:
History of psychology; educational psychology; school psychology

RESUMO

A pesquisa histórica sobre Psicologia Educacional e Escolar no Brasil ainda é insipiente ante a historiografia de outros campos do conhecimento psicológico. Abordagens biográficas, por exemplo, são ainda mais escassas. A fim de contribuir para suprir a lacuna, este artigo apresenta elementos históricos da trajetória de Eulália Henriques Maimone: professora, pioneira e protagonista na área de Psicologia Educacional e Escolar em Minas Gerais (Triângulo Mineiro), com seu trabalho na Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. O estudo recorreu à entrevista do tipo "história de vida" - própria da metodologia da História Oral. A entrevistada foi a primeira formadora de psicólogos em Psicologia Educacional e Escolar, além de fundar a representação estadual da Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Escolar e Educacional na região. Os primeiros anos de atuação, os desafios e os enfrentamentos por que ela passou ilustram o reconhecimento e a criação de espaços de discussão e aprimoramento dessa área da psicologia.

Palavras-chave:
História da psicologia; psicologia educacional; psicologia escolar

RESUMEN

La investigación histórica sobre Psicología Educacional y Escolar en Brasil aún es poco desarrollada delante la historiografía de otros campos del conocimiento psicológico. Abordajes biográficos, por ejemplo, son aún más escasas. Con la finalidad de contribuir para suplir la laguna, este artículo presenta elementos históricos de la trayectoria de Eulália Henriques Maimone: profesora, pionera y protagonista en el área de Psicología Educacional y Escolar en Minas Gerais (Triángulo Minero), con su trabajo en la Universidad Federal de Uberlândia. El estudio recurrió a la entrevista del tipo "historia de vida" - propia de la metodología de la Historia Oral. La entrevistada fue la primera formadora de psicólogos en Psicología Educacional y Escolar, además de fundar la representación estadual de la Asociación Brasileña de Psicología Escolar y Educacional en la región. Los primeros años de actuación, los desafíos y los enfrentamientos por el cual ella, pasó a ilustrar el reconocimiento y la creación de espacios de discusión y mejoramiento de esa área de la psicología.

Palabras clave:
Historia de la psicología; psicología educacional; psicología escolar

INTRODUCTION

There are many historical studies associated with Psychology in Brazil, but they tend to have a macro character, to show panoramas of phenomena, facts and characters, among other points. There are few studies about regional and local developments (cities, institutions, courses) or professional trajectories, for example. We understand that looking at the particular and the individual can contribute, little by little, to give depth to the historical understanding of how the formation of each cultural and social context involved in the development of Psychology in the country may have been; understanding of the experience of broader processes by groups, institutions and individuals. Studies focusing on particular experiences may bring nuances that are absent in historical-panoramic studies.

In effect, this article proposes to contribute to fill this gap. The study reported¹ here aimed to know the trajectory and biography of one of the pioneers of Psychology in the area of Educational and School Psychology of the Triangulo Mineiro in Minas Gerais: Eulália Henriques Maimone, PhD.² The work was carried out along the lines of a qualitative research, based on the methodological technique of the oral history of biographical testimony. Based on this, it is understood that this contribution is also circumscribed in the composition of the historiography of the field of School and Educational Psychology since the personal history is linked to the history of the field as it will be presented in this text.

The research had a qualitative approach and was developed as a case study of historiographic-biographical intentions. The case study, according to Bogdan and Biklen (1994), “consists of a detailed observation of a context, an individual, a single source of documents or a specific event” (p. 89); in fact, the degree of generalization is limited to the minimum, but the data provided can be analyzed in depth in order to know a given reality. The case study was inspired by works in the historiography of Psychology such as the Biographical Dictionary of Psychology in Brazil - to pioneers, and studies like those of Campos (2007), Barbosa (2011) - based on oral reports by pioneers - and Prates ( 2015) - about the history of the relationship between psychology and education. Meihy’s Oral History works (1991; 2000) were essential for the collection of oral material. Two interviews were conducted in 2015 and 2016, recorded in audio, transcribed and the use of the transcreation technique (textual production of the oral report).

Conventional methodologists believe that the method comes before the object and little value for studies that subvert this logic. Becker (1994) says that the mere technical description found in many studies is innocuous in the face of work that seeks meanings in the analysis methodology. A new way of building science has the primacy of going beyond the technical description to open interpretive understanding, bringing lives, meanings, stories, thoughts and opinions. In this sense, oral history (See: Meihy, 2000; Bosi, 2003; Ferreira, Fernandes, & Alberti, 2000; Ricouer, 2008; Thompson, 2002) makes a great contribution and what was considered to be imprecision and limit (forgetfulness, memory failures or omissions) becomes essential for analysis, as it brings the richness of that individual’s particular way of telling his story and talking about the theme that the researcher proposed in a unique and singular way.

In the chosen method, the intentions of the interview outline the type of oral history you want: thematic, oral tradition or life history (Meihy & Holanda, 2007, p. 15). The “life story” was adopted, applied in a semi-open interview with (consented) use of a tape recorder. As Debert (1986, p. 142) says: “Life history is not expected to provide us with a real and true picture of a near or distant past”. The expectation is that, from the “concrete experience of a specific livingness, we can reformulate our assumptions and hypothesis about a certain subject” (p.142). This modality focuses on the experience and supposes an interviewer “imbued with a sensitivity that makes him listen more than speak, stimulate more than ask”. Everything to “conduct the process as a whole” and with “negotiation” (Evangelista, 2010, p. 174).

For Thompson (2002), historians who use oral histories change the form of history by focusing on the common experience, the trivial reality, the common view on collective matters. Portelli (1997) states that oral history brings unexplored elements of everyday life and, in his opinion, no other technique allows such a reach of the dimension of subjectivity and psychological experience.

As a pioneer and exponent of School and Educational Psychology in Minas Gerais, particularly in the Triângulo Mineiro, Eulália Maimone was invited to tell her story (her education and her academic career); that is, reporting memories of the beginnings of School and Educational Psychology in the Triângulo Mineiro (creation of the Psychology course where she worked), focusing on teaching School / Educational Psychology.

After reading the “Free and Informed Consent Term” and signing the authorization to record and use the transcript of the interviews, Eulália Maimone was asked to speak freely about her career in the area of ​Psychology. In addition to the recording, notes were made in a field diary. At certain points during the interview, specific questions sought to clarify points and increase the recollection. The report had overlapping biographical passages with explanations about the history of School and Educational Psychology in Minas Gerais and Brazil; after all, she participated in the Brazilian Association of School and Educational Psychology (ABRAPEE). There was a second interview, in order to clarify some points of the first.

There was also collection of documentary data in the archives of the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) in two moments. The first was dedicated to the knowledge of the archives and their organization; the second, to the collection - in which a field diary was used for notes on central references of the documentary material. The focus of the collection was the period of requests for authorization and recognition of the Psychology course and first pedagogical projects (from 1975 to the 1990s, that is, until the first curriculum reform).

At first, the transcription of oral reports adopted literalness as a criterion; the intention was to facilitate the presentation of the data. Then there was transcreation. In fact, in Oral History procedures, transcription is a step similar to textualization as a way of systematizing the information collected; that is, it enters the assumptions postulated by Meihy (2000) regarding pre-interview (preparation), interview and post-interview (transcription, later transcreation and analysis).

Transcription and textualization presuppose textual uniformity and suppression of guide elements, such as the questions asked, in order to arrive at a linked and linear report. Such steps supposed to change codes (from phonetic to orthographic), which has led theorists of Oral History to gather instruments, procedures and techniques that allow to legitimize this type of work with the text as much as possible. The possibility of transcribing is only feasible when the person writing the final text is someone who was involved in all stages of the work. This condition is essential to the composition in the final text (Evangelista, 2010).

Transcreation also allows the deletion of parts and presentation of excerpts that are relevant to the objectives of the study and, in addition, the contributions of the interview, the final text presented here was recreated based on the analyzed documents (Barbosa & Souza, 2009). The data analysis followed the qualitative description of the report with inferences and possible discussions in the light of the literature in the area and what was found in the written documents.

CONTEXTUAL ELEMENTS OF THE PSYCHOLOGY HISTORY IN BRAZIL

In Brazil, since colonial times and the 19th century, the production of psychological knowledge has been identified (Massimi, 1990 ³; Antunes, 2014). According to Antunes (2014⁴), the historical process of Psychology in Brazil can be studied in six periods: 1) pre-institutional; 2) institutional; 3) autonomization; 4) consolidation; 5) professionalization; 6) expanding the fields of professional activity and social commitment. The study presented here was interested in periods 3, 4 and 5. Such periods have the 1930s as a chronological landmark, when Psychology projects itself as an autonomous area of knowledge and consolidates traditional practice practices: at school, in the clinic and in the work organization. It is in phase 4 that Psychology is established as a discipline in higher education and Normal Schools; in the publication of studies in periodicals and, in addition, the first congresses in the area take place. This context of developments created conditions for Psychology to be recognized, then, as an autonomous professional field and for professional training courses (phase 5) to be created, culminating in the creation of Law 4,119 / 1962.

From the 1980s-1990s, with the expansion of the activity fields, research and teaching qualification, important changes took place to consolidate and expand access to services, which became the object of democratization. Called to occupy spaces in the field of public policies, psychology consolidates the scope of action and scientific production in order to fulfill the social commitment to the interests and demands of the population.

The relationship between psychology and education has resulted in the constitution of an area called School and Educational Psychology, among other areas. Barbosa (2011), when dealing with the history of this area, proposed this periodization: 1) colonization, psychological knowledge and education (1500-1906); 2) psychology in other fields of knowledge (1906-30); 3) developmentalism - the educators movement from the new school and psychologists in education (1930-62); 4) educational psychology and school psychology (1962-81); 5) period of criticism (1981-90); 6) educational and school psychology: reconstruction (1990-2000); 7) turn of the century: new directions?

The period 1930-62 was of intense theoretical and practical production in School and Educational Psychology. In articulation with the movement of the new school, Psychology was chosen as the foundation for the escolanovistas’⁵ project. The degree of interventions in teaching has grown, especially through the application of psychometric techniques (Barbosa, 2011). The fourth period, which covers the military civilian government regime, presents advances in the field of psychometric studies. The production of theories and practices of a classificatory, adjusting, standardization and normalizing nature are established. It is the most criticized phase of the psychologist’s insertion in education.

In the period of criticism (1981-90), this School and Educational Psychology ideologically coupled with exclusionary purposes, which marked lives with labels, discrimination and perpetuated processes of exclusion, was the object of denunciation and review. The criticism led to the search for a new practice by the school psychologist; and it was reflected in the creation, in 1990, of ABRAPEE, creation of its journal and promotion of events and meetings among professionals in the area (Barbosa, 2011).

It is important to highlight that, in the 1980s, at the initiative of the Regional Council of Psychology of São Paulo and the Union of Psychologists of São Paulo, meetings were held to discuss themes in School and Educational Psychology between 1980 and 1982 (cf. Prates, 2015). During this period, there were developments in theories and practices. Some authors, due to this process, distinguish two types of School and Educational Psychology: one that would be critical, another that would not be or that would be the traditional one.

With the criticism movement, the psychologist work contrasted with adjusting, exclusionary and discriminatory processes to that of the active psychologist for humanization, awareness, production of autonomy and self-management, useful to a fair, emancipatory and quality education for all. The critical school and educational psychologist focuses not only on the student, but on schooling processes and collective work with all the characters involved in this process (school community, apprentices, educators, family members, public education policies).

In the 2000s, the search for new paths of intervention and production of knowledge in School and Educational Psychology helped to expand critical thinking about the perception of the dialectic of phenomena, in order to consider the historical, social and cultural dimensions. What defines the school psychologist is not his/her place of work - the school; but the commitment to education and the perception of its importance to promote the humanization and awareness of the subjects in order to contribute to their emancipation (Tanamachi & Meira, 2008).

It is in this context that the professional Eulália Maimone and her work in the field of Psychology in the Triângulo Mineiro region are located. Work that brought her the adjective of pioneer, alluding to the condition of being among the first to perform a given practice in a given territory. Thus, she was a pioneer as a professional in Psychology, either as an active psychologist, as a teacher or working in institutions in the field of Psychology. She was also a pioneer when participating in the beginning of the creation of ABRAPEE; being the first representative of Minas Gerais in the association. The state representation of Minas Gerais is the first instituted in ABRAPEE and exists until today. It should be clarified, beforehand, that this study focuses on the beginnings of Eulália Maimone’s work, that is, on her initial training and the early years of her professional practice, as we read below.

RESULTS: DOCUMENTS AND ORAL REPORTS

Based on the documentary sources, it was possible to understand that the graduation in Psychology at the Federal University of Uberlândia is the second to be created in the Triângulo Mineiro region. It was authorized to operate under opinion 84 of December 1975, the same year of creation (Pereira, 2011). First, the Psychology degree at Faculdades Integradas de Uberaba was created, currently the University of Uberaba / UNIUBE, founded in 1972, when it was also authorized to operate, by decree 71.356 / 72 (Cordeiro & Silva Neto, 2011).

The first class entered the UFU course in the first semester of 1976 (Pereira, 2011). The course comprised the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Uberlândia. Its foundation fell to the missionary sisters of Jesus Crucified, especially Ilar Garotti. The combination of the aforementioned faculty with four private colleges formed the University of Uberlândia in 1969 (Pereira, 2011). In 1978, it became the Federal University of Uberlândia.

The graduation in Psychology, according to Pereira (2011), was created to supply the teaching staff of secondary schools of teacher training. But it was already in the plans that the undergraduate students could obtain a psychologist degree. The first Psychology courses were initially interested in providing the training of educators. Authorization for qualification in training as a psychologist was requested on February 20, 1978 (opinion 2/78).

On March 20, 1979, the Federal Education Council (process 442/79) was asked to recognize the course with qualification: graduation and psychologist training. The application was approved on January 1, 1979, with a note in the Diário Oficial⁶ of March 4, 1981.

The course structure followed standards of the minimum curriculum, that is, duration of five years and training in areas such as clinical, school and industrial psychology (Silva Neto, 2014). Indeed, at UFU Psychology Department, Eulália Maimone was the first titled psychologist; in other words, post-graduated at the Institute of Psychology at the University of São Paulo (master’s degree in 1977 and doctorate in 1979), under the guidance of Geraldina Porto Witter, also considered a pioneer in the area. Thus, she served as the first qualified professor in the area in the Psychology course at UFU. She participated in the foundation of the Psychology Society of Triângulo Mineiro as a board member and she was ABRAPEE’s president.

Therefore, the name Eulália Maimone is associated with the pioneering role and protagonist in the history of Psychology in her territory, with productions and practices in the educational and school field, participation in bodies or institutions in the area and in teaching activities. These attributes seem to justify the choice of the object of this study.

Eulália Maimone’s experience as a teacher included teaching subjects related to educational and school psychology, including as an internship supervisor. She told about her training trajectory, always linked to the educational area, and her hiring by UFU⁷, in 1979.

Graduated from the first Psychology class at the Faculty of Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto (1964-8) - later incorporated into the University of São Paulo -, Eulália Maimone, once graduated, became a professor in the first Psychology class at the current State University of São Paulo (UNESP / Assis). This, at the time of hiring Eulália Maimone, covered the Isolated Institutes of Higher Education of the State of São Paulo, unified in 1976. It is worth reiterating that she was also the first titled professor at UFU, after 1979.

Eulália Maimone referred to difficulties faced: they were related, in particular, to structural and financial resources, as well as to the change in the conception of Educational and School Psychology, an area whose projects had her participation. Here is how she referred to the choice of graduating in Psychology and acting in the field of Educational Psychology:

[...] I took a training course for teaching. It was called a classic, scientific and normal course. We studied the subjects of the Normal course, which are subjects that in other courses - classical and scientific - did not exist, which were precisely Educational Psychology and Philosophy of Education. [...] I think my interest, in addition to wanting to work in the area of ​​education, was a lot of Psychology in the Normal course. It was that Psychology focused on those concepts of memory, intelligence, for example. Then there was the Psychology of Education and the philosophers of education, and I don’t think anyone was a psychologist there. Even the teacher who taught Psychology to us was not a psychologist.

[...] I was not sure which way I would take after I finished the course. I even thought about studying in Belo Horizonte [...], but I don’t think I even had a Psychology course in Belo Horizonte [...] Then - you see what happened ... I went to take a teaching course to wait what was going to happen. I took a further training course, right after the Normal course.

[...] You had to finish the teaching training course or you had to be a network teacher, you know? As a teacher of the state or municipality, you could also enroll in this course. [...] there was Psychology again [...] from the beginning there was already School Psychology, although it was not called that. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

Eulália Maimone recalled her training / graduation course, her participation in the student movement and her first contacts with psychological science and School and Educational Psychology:

We also used a space there [on the premises of the Medical course in Ribeirão Preto], in the central building, the vivarium. So we could use animals from the vivarium to do experiments. As there was no Skinner box, no other equipment, Teresa Lemos set it up; she came from Rio de Janeiro to teach us, she had a doctorate in the United States ... she had the obstruction cages built, as they were called at the time, to do the experiments, obstructing the passage of the animal at certain times. For example, one of them had the litter on one side and the mother on the other side; and in the middle there was an electrified part, to see how far the strength of the maternal instinct goes, if it would go through the shock; and also used water deprivation, food deprivation, among other experiments, for example, to see what the mouse did to get there in the food. It was checked how long he would need deprivation ... I did that part, then I didn’t even want to do the exercises in Skinner’s box because, later on, they were bought and the laboratory was set up; and everything is dependent on medicine. We didn’t have a building, nothing!

So, it was like this ... Our director was Dr. Luciano, who was a Belgian and professor at the Medical school. He brought Belgian teachers. [...] The two Brazilian teachers we had at the time were this Tereza, who later went to Ribeirão Preto, to USP [University of São Paulo] in Ribeirão, stayed there until she retired ... and Telma, who did doctorate in France. So, now and then we were without a teacher because she spent time in France. But she was not a psychologist. Tereza was a psychologist, but Telma was not! She was a philosopher. And then what happened ... we had all the basic subjects with foreign teachers, because there was no trained psychologist in Brazil. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

This passage reveals events and facts from the history of Psychology in Brazil. Many of the first graduates were trained in Pedagogy or Philosophy, at the Faculties of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences or were trained by foreigners. The first psychologists were regularized only after 1966 by a commission created to give the first titles of psychologist to those who worked in the field of Psychology. The presence of foreign professors in undergraduate courses was notable in several country institutions.

About Educational and School Psychology, here is what Maimone said:

[...] I was eagerly waiting for the School Psychology teacher to arrive [...]. We could do the Psychology course and we could do the Bachelor or the Graduation degree. Then, you could be just a bachelor, or bachelor and graduate, or bachelor-psychologist. I did, of course, the pedagogical subjects. [...] I took subjects that I really liked: Sociology of Education, Philosophy of Education. But, for the School Psychology course, she was a pedagogue; and this teacher was a complete disappointment! She was going to teach the class, and they didn’t accept it ... The staff knew she wasn’t a psychologist, and we wanted a psychologist [...] Then, I think I was only able to be satisfied in this area when I finished the Psychology course and was appointed to be the director of a school in Ribeirão Preto. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

The interviewee said that she started her professional practice as a teacher in the municipal education network at night, while I was still studying. According to her, she asked the mayor of Ribeirão Preto to continue as a psychologist at the school and created a School Psychology service there with interns from the Psychology course from 1969 to 1972. She remembered Geraldina Porto Witter, who taught School and Educational Psychology at graduation degree and of whom Eulália Maimone was a listening student, then a volunteer monitor and finally a master’s and doctoral student.

In 1972, Professor Eulália Maimone joined the Isolated Institutes of Higher Education of the State of São Paulo, in the city of Assis, as a teacher. The entrance scored candidates by titles. According to her words, the fact that she was taking a master’s degree contributed to her entry into the institution, which started her graduation in Psychology:

I was one of the first class in Ribeirão Preto to teach there. And I taught the first class in Assisi [...] the students were studying for a graduation or a bachelor degree. I know that they did some degree of graduation in Assisi and then they went to São Paulo to finish the course, in general to PUC [Pontifical Catholic University]. They did this to finish the training with the title of psychologist, because they did not have it in Assis.

With the arrival of new teachers, prepared to give an internship, it was necessary to set up a clinic-school. They started with a clinic, but later became a Center for Applied Psychology. I worked in that Center, in the implantation and in the school area. My part was the school area, and we also taught.

[...] I was the coordinator of the Applied Psychology part, which still exists today [...] I was invited to be a coordinator. I ended up going and started working. So, Geraldina Porto Witter encouraged me to do a master’s degree at USP in São Paulo. She insisted that Vera [Sobral] and I should go. The first time, I thought, “I’m not ready.” She explained to me what the exam was like to enter USP. I had to review all the psychology content, they required everything for the Psychology course. [...] I didn’t have much hope of entering because they already said that those who entered there were only their own students, from USP. And that ended up happening [...]

So a course was given there, at USP, I think it was three or four months, and Geraldina Porto Witter came to take the course. [...] It was good for me because I was reviewing all the disciplines, and that was what they did in the course [...] they went over [...] this whole basis. [...] And yet there were ten vacancies. I thought very little, I really paid for it ... I didn’t think I could pass. [...]

I finished my doctorate in 1978, in October [...] We did not choose a supervisor, they chose us. Geraldina Porto Witter chose me and I started doing it with her. At that time, I went to UNESP in Assis [...] And I liked the job. I did a lot of work in Assis ... [...] I came to UFU in March, and defended my doctorate the following year, in April. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

Eulália Maimone begins her teaching career in Assisi and then comes to Uberlândia. She defended in her master’s thesis entitled “Estudo comparativo de quarto modalidades de um programa de remediação verbal aplicada a crianças carentes culturais” (1977)⁸ and, in her doctorate, the thesis “ Influência de histórias infantis no desempenho verbal de escolares: análise quanto aos aspectos qualitativos e quantitativos dos textos com relação ao contador de história e ao nível sócio-econômico e sexo dos sujeitos”(1980)⁹. She said that she defended quickly because she had no scholarship and negotiated with the department head in Assis, so that she could carry out his studies:

[...] There, in Assis, I didn’t have a scholarship either. I negotiated with the head of the department in order not to prejudice the schedule. I was traveling for seven years ... In the master’s, we took the tests and then spent two years taking courses. And only then I started writing the dissertation. On the day of the defense of the master’s degree, I was with my second son when he was 20 days old. I went to Geraldina’s house. She loved to take us to her house. We already discussed how my doctorate would be, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I did my doctorate in two years. I defended it in 1980, started in 1978. I was already at UFU, I came in 1979, and I was pregnant with my third child. I was sick on the day of the defense, but nobody noticed ... (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

From 1979, Eulália Maimone started to teach classes at UFU. She recalls that, during this period, many professors were hired, most of whom had no doctorate degree. According to her, the time of service was more valued than the degree, differently from what happens today. She recalled the early years, including the creation and operation of the Applied Psychology service. She said that there was still no space for teachers’ rooms and that there were few classrooms.

In order to finish her doctorate, as she said, she had difficulties because the texts were handwritten to be typed later and then sent to the advisor by post to be corrected. Fulfilling the doctoral duties at UFU required advancing late into the night.

One day ... a fellow professor at UFU was working and started to hear some noises [...] very early in the morning. And he was thinking, “What is that?” It was the cleaning people. [...] And suddenly the people came and heard the noise of the typewriter, they saw the light on and thought it was a ghost and everyone ran out. Have you thought? They didn’t think a teacher would be working at that hour, did they? [...]

Gradually, we were getting what we needed. The first computer [...] It was like this: at the time that Antônio Ribeiro [colleague professor at UFU] arrived, I know that he came here to be scientific director ... and he instituted a budget for research, because there weren’t nothing yet.

[...] The idea of ​​the Applied Psychology Center appeared before the master’s degree. We came up with the project, me, Olga Inácio Barbosa [professor at UFU] and one other person. [...] Who else? Who is the third person who taught chemistry? Who is it? I don’t remember ... I know we did the project for the [...] Center for Applied Psychology, and the center did not leave the paper ... (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

With a perspective of still working in the practical field with School and Educational Psychology, Eulália Maimone remembered that she participated in a project entitled School Health:

[...] we did a school health project [...] we participated in the school health program, which was coordinated by the Medical school and Dentistry course participated [...] They had a prevention program.

So the Medical staff took care of the food part, and had the health agents from the schools. They did a job to see worms [...] exams, among others. And Dentistry worked on oral health. When the first molar was being born, they took care of that first molar because it was the first permanent tooth ... And they did all the hygiene and brushing work. And they wanted the faculty of Psychology participates. And we started to participate with “learning difficulties”. [...] through the UDAs [advanced didactic units].

[...] Five areas were mapped in Uberlândia on the suburbs. I know there were five areas and there were Dentistry and Medicine supervisors for the five areas; and we, from Psychology, got into that. [...] The school had to arrive at the UDA and, there, put the problems, the complaints, what they wanted. And they were looking for professionals who could meet the demand. We had transport, but it was the Medical school that got it. Instead of removing the child and going to the UDA, where we had no space to work, we went with the children to a school referenced by the UDA. We heard the complaint and then we went to school.

[...] The medical staff evaluated and said: “No, this child has nothing to do with health that may be impairing learning”. So they called us. Psychologists were placed in these units, but they worked with play therapy. It was not possible to serve everyone. Play therapy! Do you believe? Look at the image they were presenting from a psychologist to the community ... (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

Eulália Maimone said that, in this initial project, there was already a concern to not only attend to the “problem child”, but also to verify the teaching conditions, understand the role of the teacher and act in a broader perspective of understanding the schooling process:

We arrived doing everything differently. Many children started to go to this unit. We interviewed the teacher of the boys [...] only of children who had repeated, the children were “playing games” in that room. The teacher hated it. But the teacher who took one of these rooms felt like a mortal punishment ... We were able to bring milk to the children. We took cookies, juice, because we worked with them and gave them a snack, then the work continued.

At work we took the children out of the classrooms to evaluate, but most of the time we had to go with the teacher. We watched in the room, to see what it was like. The teacher became our client ... to change something there, the school had to change. [...] I did not agree with psychologists to work on play therapy with this demand. What did they want? They wanted us to treat them, to do therapy with the children as in the health center, and to call them one by one ...

Then things started to get worse. We lost the transport; we obtained, at UFU’s social service, the pass [card for free bus transportation] for mothers to bring their children by bus. People complained at the clinic [UFU school service] because we used many rooms at the same time. But I had nothing to do. The children had to come during class time, stop going to school to go to the university, and the students attended the children in groups or individually. There were many children with speech difficulties, and we didn’t have speech therapists at the time. [...] paying a private speech therapist was very expensive!

I stayed with the mothers, formed a group of mothers, while the boys were in the room doing activities. We gave supervision. I started to have this interest in the participation of parents in the child’s school life. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

It is interesting to note that the interviewee was already doing School and Educational Psychology at that time with the concern of covering everyone involved in the schooling process. The interviewee said that, at that time, they used a teacher observation scale, made classroom observation and filming, and then used guidelines to assess the problem situation; this without focusing only on the so-called “problem child” or focusing on diagnosing the child, or the teacher. The work consisted of something more expanded to observe all the variables that could contribute to the production of school failure.

Eulália Mainone also tells about her participation in an association created in Triângulo Mineiro to bring together psychologists and maintained a scientific journal, the Psychology Society of Triângulo Mineiro - SPTM:

[...] There’s the SPTM, which I think is important to talk about ... it’s been twenty years ... We had very few magazines ... We had nowhere to publish ... (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015- 2016, s. p.).

This Psychology Society was founded in 1994, in Uberlândia, by a group of professors from UFU. One of the initial objectives was to promote research related to Psychology. In 24 years of history, it has promoted 20 meetings in order to encourage exchanges among professors, researchers and students in the region. The society also published a journal, starting in 1998, which already has 30 editions. Students and teachers participated in the meetings and the journal, in which they were able, respectively, to present and publish research. There was an incentive to produce scientific knowledge consistent with the objectives of society; but not without challenges for its maintenance in face of the demands of the current production, especially regarding the evaluation of the journal (Silva Neto et al., 2015)¹⁰.

In addition to being part of the Psychology Society of the Triângulo Mineiro, Eulália Maimone also participated in the beginnings of ABRAPEE, an entity in which she was the first professional from the Triângulo Mineiro to participate more actively. She said:

It is part of the story ... There were ABRAPEE Newsletters, which Geraldina Porto Witter was responsible for and she printed ... I took care of that part and sent the Newsletters to whoever was on the list [...]. So, when I went to talk, in 1990, that ABRAPEE was founded ... I talked about it ... the first nucleus, it was called “nucleus” at the time. The “first state nucleus of ABRAPEE” was established in Minas Gerais. [...] At that time, Raquel Guzzo and Solange Wechsler encouraged to form the nucleus here in Minas Gerais. They were in that first nucleus of Minas Gerais: Celia Vectore, Maria José Ribeiro and Eleonora Estela Toffoli Ribeiro [all professors at UFU]. We were part of the first nucleus, which currently has no more, it was “state representation” of ABRAPEE (Testimony of Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

The production of ABRAPEE Journal and participation in School Psychology congresses show that many psychologists and teachers from Minas Gerais, in particular from the Triângulo Mineiro, have researched in the area of ​​ School and Educational Psychology. It is understood that the state representation of ABRAPEE contributed to the production of these researchers. Even though studies about this impact in the area are lacking, it is observed that, while in other states ABRAPEE produced one or two regional meetings, in Minas there were more than five. In addition, the presence of professors from Minas Gerais in state congresses and in the association’s board is significant. Many alumni from higher education institutions such as UFU and the University of Uberaba (UNIUBE) participated in the construction of the other eight Psychology courses that currently exist in the Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba region: two courses in Patos de Minas, three in Uberlândia, one in Uberaba, one in Ituiutaba.

About the possibility of having an impact on this process, here’s what Eulália Maimone said:

I see UFU like this ... you can’t talk about UNIUBE either because it started before ... and before it was more Ribeirão Preto [with USP]. Ribeirão that influenced a lot ... I don’t know now. [...] to set up the experimental laboratory, it was a colleague of ours who went there, you know? [...] USP’s people from São Paulo went to Ribeirão, to set up everything there ...

Here in Triângulo Mineiro it was a mixture [...] from here ... these eight Psychology courses [...] I think it may have had an influence [on the formation of courses]. (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

The report of Eulália Maimone shows that, from her presence, as well as from her students and colleagues at UFU, a group of researchers and a generation of professors, psychologists and students working in the area was forming, to the point that currently in the UFU there are twelve professors whose scope is School and Educational Psychology. She recalls that, at the beginning of ABRAPEE’s nucleus / state representation in Uberlândia, they contacted psychologists working in public health so that they understood that school issues were not just about the child, about the child’s body; that is, the victim could not be blamed, once again, for the failure that was produced by a larger situation. In her words:

[...] when this nucleus started, one thing we also did was to get in touch with the psychologists who were in the clinics [health centers / basic health units ...]. The teacher sent the child to the doctor when he/she had a learning problem. But these psychologists from the public health network do not work much at school ... (Testimony by Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

Regarding the Applied Psychology Service, Eulália Maimone recalled her arrival in Uberlândia and her goals:

When I came to Uberlândia, I also had the objective of setting up the clinic [the UFU school service] [...] it was supposed to be an Applied Psychology Center¹¹.

So, I had to go to São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, in 1972, to enroll in the Regional Council of Psychology and be instructed about which functions I would answer in the position of the clinic coordinator, because at that time there was no office in the Triângulo Mineiro region (Testimony of Maimone for this work, 2015-2016, s. p.).

This passage allows us to understand that Eulália Maimone also contributed to constitute a technical reference responsible for the school service, which also contributed to the expansion of the school and educational area in Minas Gerais in its beginnings. Her influence and that of the group that forms at UFU with her colleagues from the ABRAPEE nucleus expands participation and encourages the insertion of professionals in the area, for the collaboration of the insertion of practical services in School and Educational Psychology, in the molds that today we call Critical School and Educational Psychology. This was mainly due to the vision that they were building of differentiation from what occurred in the School Health project, because, little by little, another model of action was being built in the school service (at that time called “clinic”) at the Federal University of Uberlândia.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

It is possible to observe that when the UFU Psychology course was created and installed, in the 1970s, there were disciplines related to the educational context, because the course also provided the degree of graduate. As it was one of the objectives to train teachers, there were strong links between Psychology and Education. Therefore, Eulália Maimone’s account reveals how her contribution to the creation and establishment of a pioneering group in the school area at the University and in the Triângulo Mineiro was.

Eulália Maimone’s report shows that she worked against the more clinical view of the psychologist’s performance, seeking to elaborate supervised internship projects that aimed to intervene in an institutional perspective and in the relations and schooling processes as a whole, including the apprentice, teachers and the monitoring of those responsible for the children referred for psychological care. The interviewee reveals how much School and Educational Psychology has gradually changed the focus of attention: from the learning problems of the so-called problem children (or problem students) to a more contextual view.

It is possible to observe how much some theoretical approaches were more prevalent in the 1960s and others in the 1970s and how, from the 1980s, criticisms of this traditional Educational and School Psychology grew, whether with academic or scientific production, or in practice propositions. Eulália Maimone’s report (life, school education and professional performance) shows the importance of the participation of a territory, the Triângulo Mineiro, in changes and national discussions, especially in the context provided by ABRAPEE, from the creation and development of a state nucleus for discussions, promotion of training courses such as postgraduate studies and regional events.

It is worth noting the difficulties of starting a field and pioneering work when the models are in the process of being built and require creating, implementing, disseminating and training new supporters. When telling the experience in the UFU course, Eulália Maimone said how important these first steps were to build what we see today organized in higher education institutions of Psychology and, also - why not say? -, in Psychology itself in Brazil.

Here is, as a highlight, the importance of exposing reports like the one by Eulália Maimone because they help to compose the history of Psychology in territories such as the Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais and collaborate to instigate other researchers to see, in the themes presented, promising starting points to develop systematic studies that, in the future, expose more of the history of Psychology forged outside of the most prominent urban centers in the country.

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• 1
  The authors would like to thank Professor Maria do Carmo Guedes, PhD for supervising the project: “A História do ensino de Psicologia Escolar no Triângulo Mineiro”, the result of the first author’s postdoctoral research, which culminated in this article.
• 2
  The Maimoni spelling appears in some references.
• 3
  Due to graphic-editorial limits, a brief mention of other texts by Massimi follows: “História das idéias psicológicas no Brasil em obras do período colonial” (1984), the organization of the book “Navegadores, colonos, missionários na Terra de Santa Cruz: um estudo psicológico da correspondência epistolar” (1997), the article “Historiar a psicologia: assumindo uma perspectiva e um lugar de observação” (2000) and the co-authored work: “História da psicologia no Brasil: novos estudos” (2004).
• 4
  Antunes’ production includes: “Consolidation of Psychology in Brazil (1930-1962): sistematization of date and some analitical tentatives”, article from 2006; “Psychology and education in Brazil: a historical-critical look”, chapter of the book Psicologia Escolar: teorias críticas, from 2008 and the articles “Psicologia escolar e educacional: história, compromissos e perspectivas”, also from 2008 and “Psychology in Brazil: an essay on its contradictions”, from 2012.
• 5
  The educators group in Brazil inspired by the “New School” theories.
• 6
  It is a means of communication in which constitutional amendments, laws, decrees, normative instructions, ordinances, normative acts of general interest, acts of interest to the employees of the federal public administration are published.
• 7
  At the beginning of the courses, there was, as today, competitive public tenders. The teacher could be invited and hired; in some cases, it went through an evaluation committee for admission as a teacher in higher education. However, differently from what happens, this teacher was qualified during the teaching exercise.
• 8
  “Comparative study of four modalities of a verbal remediation program applied to culturally deprived children”. (Translator’s note)
• 9
  “Influence of children’s stories on the verbal performance of schoolchildren: analysis of aspects qualitative and quantitative texts in relation to the story teller and the socioeconomic level and sex of the subjects.”(Translator’s note)
• 10
  PTM held its last meeting in 2017, when it decided to end it.
• 11
  The UFU curriculum matrix for the 1975 pedagogical project contained supervised internships in the three areas required by the old minimum curriculum, namely: clinical, school and industrial.

• This paper was translated from Portuguese by Ana Maria Pereira Dionísio.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  30 Nov 2020
• Date of issue
  2020

History

• Received
  07 Aug 2019
• Accepted
  17 Nov 2020