“It’s early, I have so many stories to tell you”: orality and Oral History in the investigation of rural schools in Paraná

Abstract

In this article, we present considerations about orality as a legitimate source of knowledge for understanding the historical processes that involve the (mathematics) education of rural people in Brazil, and we also deal with the potential of Oral History as a theoretical-methodological resource, suggested by and perceived from investigations carried out in the state of Paraná, to understand, elaborate and record stories of rural schools. We also consider the challenges and possibilities that these studies show when they practice Oral History and place it as a powerful methodology for studies in the History of Mathematics Education, whose primary object of analysis is rural educational institutions. To this end, we chose to present four historiographical researches, which recorded historical versions of rural schools in the state of Paraná, at different times: one of them investigated a Rural Schoolhouse and proposed to elaborate a narrative about the first decade of operation of this school institution (1961-1971); another research considered studying a Rural School Group (1947-1977) and the other two researches deal with Itinerant Schools, one of which is no longer in operation (2009-2016) and the other is still traveling, as it is located in a camp (2008-current days).

Rural Schools; Rural Education; Narratives; Oral History; History of Mathematics Education