Ideology as an analytical category of the history of education: A reflection on the work Ideologia e educação brasileira

Abstract

This article presents a refl ection on the work Ideologia e educação brasileira aiming to identify the contributions of is author, Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury, to the fi eld of history of education. The author’s intellectual trajectory and his education are also covered in the article. It analyzes that work, which is understood as a representation of the period in which it was written, as well as its affi liation to the kind of history of education research produced at PUC-SP in the late 1970s. Through bibliographical research and a review of literature on the subject, the notion of ideology is understood as an analytical category in the history of education. Cury’s work opened a way of interpreting the history of education based on ideologies that permeate Brazilian education. It became a reference for researchers and students in the fi eld and constitutes a renowned interpretation of the history of education. The notion of ideology used by the author is challenged in the article. It is argued that the clash between “Catholics” and “liberals” described by Cury hid other agents concerned with education and that the interpretation put forward by him proves to be insuffi cient for current research on the history of education.

Keywords: History of Education, Brazilian education, ideology.