Abstract In this study, were evidenced discourses and pedagogical practices centered on the issue of health at Escola Nicaragua, specifically about hygiene and physical education in the Semana de Educação of the Associação Brasileira de Educação (ABE) in 1928. For this, in a microanalysis, we analyzed the organization of a pedagogical notebook produced at Escola Nicaragua, located in the suburb of the city of Rio de Janeiro, on the theme of health. Then, we aim to understand how the representations of hygienic education and physical education were appropriated by the social agents present at the school, in connection with the objectives of healthy education defended by the ABE. Through the sources, it was considered that the students at the Nicaragua School, despite the concerns of intellectuals and their living conditions, based on their practices, knew how to express what was chosen as a model in the school.

Resumo Neste estudo, foram evidenciados discursos e práticas pedagógicas centrados na questão da saúde no contexto da Escola Nicarágua, especificamente no que diz respeito à higiene e à educação física na Semana de Educação da Associação Brasileira de Educação (ABE) de 1928. Para isso, em uma microanálise, analisamos a organização de um caderno pedagógico produzido na Escola Nicarágua, situada no subúrbio da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, sobre o tema da saúde. Desse modo, objetivamos compreender como as representações sobre educação higiênica e educação física eram apropriadas pelos agentes sociais presentes na escola, em conexão com os objetivos de uma educação saudável defendida pela ABE. Por meio das fontes, considerou-se que os estudantes da Escola Nicarágua, a despeito dos anseios dos intelectuais e das suas condições de vida, a partir das suas práticas, souberam expressar o que era eleito como modelo na escola.

Abstract Aim: This research aimed to understand how Associação Brasileira de Educação (ABE – Brazilian Education Association) constituted visibility strategies for “body education” in Rio de Janeiro city. Method: As for methodology, we conducted documentary research whose primary sources were reports and minutes of ABE, newspapers, magazines, and books. Results: Our time framework was between 1928 and 1935, a period when ABE organized festivities called “Education Weeks” whose target group was students of Rio de Janeiro schools and their parents. Conclusion: It concluded that ABE managed to mobilize schools to demonstrate models of body practices consistent with the principles of a modern school. By alternating strategies such as lectures, courses, public exhibitions, ABE tried to print in the city the auspices of a modern and sanitized life which had not reached significant portions of the Brazilian population in a country that still claimed a more substantial state intervention in the social field. Similarly, public education was incipient and its project was still being drafted in a debate that involved a multitude of voices and agents with their interests. Between tradition and modernity, it would be difficult to organize discourses in two opposite poles. Finally, as in the discourses, in the field of practices, the mere polarization between tradition and modernity definitively does not explain the alliances and conflicts inherent to the various actors in the construction of greater visibility of “body education” by ABE.

Resumo No Rio de Janeiro, na década de 1930, uma presença mais efetiva de intelectuais em cargos governamentais poderia garantir a efetivação de uma série de estratégias que visava à construção de uma reforma mais ampla da sociedade pautada pela modernidade, que residia também nas reformas de hábitos, como a higiene e a educação do corpo. Sendo o Rio de Janeiro, o centro administrativo da República, haveria a necessidade de articulação entre as políticas governamentais no âmbito da educação e saúde sobretudo naquela cidade. Na análise desse contexto, este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a influência e o impacto de estratégias higienistas sobre o cotidiano das escolas. O estudo teve como fontes, principalmente, os jornais O Paiz e o Jornal do Brasil no período de 1930 a 1939. O corpo documental foi composto por 37 artigos de jornal, sendo que 21 foram analisados nesta pesquisa, pois envolviam as categorias específicas “medicina escolar”, “higiene escolar” e “educação higiênica”. A hipótese versava sobre uma influência limitada dos intelectuais, havendo uma distância entre o que era pensado e o que era executado. Contudo, os resultados obtidos permitem considerar uma aproximação entre os discursos e as práticas pedagógicas influenciada pela participação efetiva de intelectuais como Fernando de Azevedo e Anísio Teixeira, por exemplo, na organização da educação no Rio de Janeiro, sobretudo no início da década de 1930.

Abstract In the 1930s in Rio de Janeiro, there was an effective presence of intellectuals in government positions, which could ensure the implementation of a number of strategies aimed at the construction of a wider reform of a society guided by modernity, which lay in the reform of habits, such as hygiene and body education. Rio de Janeiro was the administrative center of the republic, so there was a need for coordinating government policy on education and health, especially in that city. This study has aimed to evaluate the influence and impact of hygienist strategies on the daily life of schools. Its sources were mainly O Paiz and Jornal do Brazil newspapers in the 1930s. The document corpus consisted of 37 newspaper articles, of which 21 were analyzed in this research, because they involved the following specific categories: school medicine, school hygiene and health education. The hypothesis pointed to the limited influence of intellectuals, with a gap between what was thought and what was executed. However, findings allow us to consider approaching the educational discourses and practices influenced by the actual participation of intellectuals such as Fernando de Azevedo and Anísio Teixeira in the organization of education in Rio de Janeiro, particularly in the early 1930s.