EDUCATING FOR DEMOCRACY AS THE FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION IN BRAZIL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE CONTRIBUTION OF ANÍSIO TEIXEIRA

Abstract

The present article inscribes itself within the context of a wider research, that examines the issue of the foundations of Brazilian education with the ambition to educate for democracy, formulated during the twentieth century, examining the philosophical basis and the kind of educational praxis suggested to make viable the enunciated pedagogical discourse. This article accomplishes the analysis of the role of Anísio Teixeira to the configuration of the ideal of educating for democracy by the school. Anísio Teixeira is one of the icons of the new school movement in Brazil of the twentieth century, with serious performance in the Brazilian educational scenario as a scholar as well as educational systems manager, involved in organizing practical ways to make viable his ideas. The study of the bibliographical character has found the influence of American pragmatism and liberalism in the formation of the ideas of Anísio Teixeira, even as it carries the discussion on the pedagogical forms proposed by the author to achieve the ideal of educating for democracy by means of school. It examines, further, the criticism that the thought of Anísio Teixeira received and considers the chances and the force of his pedagogical thinking in the educational scenario.