VESTÍGIOS DA CULTURA ESCOLAR:

As publicações do periódico estudantil Avante (Vale do Rio dos Sinos, 1962-1963)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the student newspaper Avante, produced between May 1962 and October 1963 by students and teachers from Catholic confessional schools in the cities of Novo Hamburgo and São Leopoldo, located in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We had access to ten editions of the newspaper, preserved by a former student from one of the institutions involved in its production, which were made available for research purposes. Based on these editions, we examine the representations conveyed in the publications, especially regarding youth and Catholic values. Our theoretical and methodological framework draws on Amaral (2002) and Luca (2015) regarding the use of printed sources, as well as on the concepts of school culture as discussed by Escolano Benito (2005) and of written culture and representation as proposed by Chartier (2003, 2011). We understand the student newspaper as a historical document that preserves traces of the school culture of the institutions involved in its production process, while also serving as an artifact used to disseminate aspects of Catholicism within the local society. In this sense, Avante functioned as a tool for spreading Catholic ideals, reinforcing gender hierarchies and virtues such as obedience and charity, but it also provided spaces for student expression.