The School Curriculum: A Cultural History Viewpoint and the Modernization of the Arithmetics Teaching in Paraná’s State Primary Schools in the Early XXTH Century

Abstract

<jats:p>ABSTRACT From the viewpoint of cultural history, this paper analyzes disputes about purposes and methods for teaching arithmetic’s in Paraná’s state primary schools, as published in the magazine A Escola (The School) in the early XXth century. It highlights behind-the-scenes speeches by intellectuals who advocated a laic and free primary education, in which the main issue, besides of the pedagogical order, was also social and political, an aspect generally absent in the curriculum guidelines.</jats:p>