Abstract:
This research work analyzes the educational paths of the Black community and the
Lutheran German immigrants, particularly at the Lutheran schools in the state of Rio Grande
do Sul. Besides the bibliographic research, the author makes use of documents, particularly
pictures of school classes, and of interviews with principals, teachers, employees, students
and parents of two Lutheran schools - School A and School B - located in the Valley of the
Sinos River. She especially analyzes the number of African-Brazilian students who have
attended schools A and B since the decade of 1940 and the relationships that were established
at these schools through the insertion of students of African descent, highlighting the
educational path and identity construction in each one of these ethnic groups. From this
perspective she discusses the factors that made it possible and those that made it difficult for
both groups to have their contribution to the construction of the country and the exercise of
their citizenship recognized. The research was able to identify various elements that support
the following research hypothesis: the different educational paths of the Black population
and the German immigrant population in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were
determined by the material conditions under which both groups came to Brazil and by
the opportunities to preserve and experience their cultural and religious references in
the new context that were actually given to them. The discussion of the relationship
between the educational situation of the Black immigrants in Brazil, more specifically in Rio
Grande do Sul, and the educational path of the Lutheran German immigrants is accompanied
by an analysis of the relationships that were established between the Black community and
the German community in the construction of curricula at Lutheran community schools and of
the challenge of retrieving the communal confessional praxis that was inspired by Lutheran
theology and pedagogy.
