Tropeirismo and education

Schooling on the route of the Estrada de Palmas-Palmeira (1854-1916)

Abstract

The Estrada de Palmas-Palmeira was a branch of the Caminho das Missões, which sought to meet the commercial needs arising from the great Tropeirismo of the 19th century, allowing the transit of cattle from the missionary region and the Campos de Palmas to the Caminho de Viamão. In this rota, until 1916 the municipalities of Palmeira, Palmas, São João do Triunfo, União da Vitória, São Mateus, and São Pedro de Mallet were constituted. Because of the economic, social, and cultural development of this region, this text aims to analyze the relationship between tropeirismo and schooling along the route of the Estrada Palmas-Palmeira, in the period 1854-1916. The temporal delimitation began in 1854, as it was the government’s initial landmark in the Province of Paraná when the Paraná government started to organize public education and other sectors. The 1916 clipping marked the boundary agreement between the State of Paraná and Santa Catarina. The adopted methodology is the analysis of official documents, focusing on the analysis of the educational legislation, reports from provincial presidents, reports from state governors, reports from public education inspectors and teachers, as well as bibliographic sources. The research revealed that despite the sociocultural and economic transformations resulting from tropeirismo in the region, an expansion of schooling only occurred with colonization and the development of new forms of work.