National Conferences of Education: intellectuals, state and educational discourse (1927-1967)

ABSTRACT The article has as its object the educational discourse enunciated throughout the thirteen National Conferences of Education (CNEs), organized by the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE) and carried out between 1927 and 1967. In methodological terms, we have the conjectures of linguistic contextualism as a basis, in particular the notion of complex language. We will privilege the characterization of the ABE and its events, and the relations between the ABE and the State; we will also formulate a hypothesis about the structuring of educational discourse. The sources of the research are documents of a diverse nature, such as correspondences, newspapers, conferences and motions presented during the CNEs. In the study, we were able to identify the ABE and the CNEs as privileged places to project an intelligentsia with the authority to talk about the problems and, above all, about the goals and priorities of the national education. The study of the CNEs also revealed that the educational congresses fulfilled multiple functions, among which we highlight: giving visibility to the actions of the State; legitimizing the intellectuals involved in the direction of educational reforms; winning the consent of society in general and of the school community in particular for the implementation of intended changes; and, finally, structuring educational discourse.