THE PRESS AS A SOURCE IN HISTORY OF EDUCATION RESEARCH: ASSUMPTIONS AND PROCEDURES FOR READING PERIODICALS

Abstract

This chapter addresses the press as a source for historical research, with emphasis on studies in the history of education. It is a bibliographic study of a theoretical and methodological nature, whose analysis is guided by historical-dialectical materialism. It starts from the following question: which assumptions and procedures should guide the researcher in reading newspapers and magazines as historical sources? The general objective is to discuss the possibilities and precautions involved in using the press as a source, and the specific objectives are to examine the relationship between sources and historical knowledge, to understand the process through which the press moved from a suspicious document to a source recognized by historiography, and to systematize procedures for its critical reading. The results indicate that periodicals should not be read as neutral accounts of events, but as products of specific social relations that express the interests, projects and disputes of their time. It was shown that reading the press requires considering the materiality of publications, the conditions of their production, the subjects who write in them, the audience they address and the contradictions present in their discourses, as well as cross-checking with other sources. It is concluded that, when rigorously questioned, the press is a highly valuable source for the history of education, as it makes it possible to grasp the debates surrounding schooling, the competing educational projects and the participation of different social groups in shaping the direction of education.