Theoretical and methodological foundations of Prosopography and Digital History in the study of women intellectuals, editors, and teachers in the History of Education

Abstract

Based on prosopography and Digital History, the article discusses the theoretical-methodological basis of an investigation that considered seven women as intellectuals in Education. Specifically, it seeks to present the trajectory, methodological procedures, and digital sources, as well as the contributions, warnings, and suggestions regarding the use of data analysis software in the production of an Educational History. Prosopography studies collective biographies of individuals who shared projects, thus requiring the articulation of many sources. The acquisition of these sources is challenging in studies on women intellectuals due to the scarcity of specialized collections about them. However, the resources of the Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional Digital assist in mapping sources through the search in printed materials. Once the sources are obtained, professional software, developed for researchers’ use, allows for archiving, categorizing, analyzing the sources, and creating metadata. We emphasize that digital technologies bring challenges to the work of the education historian, both technical and theoretical, in addition to requiring reflection on their impact on historiography, especially in making the experiences of women and other historically invisible subjects visible.