Turning to the discursive invention of Brazil, the article addresses the interpretation of the country as a nation divided by a duality and aligns representations of Sertão in the Brazilian social thought as possible reading keys to research the history of national education. Aiming to highlight a unique moment of the effects of the dualistic interpretation of Brazil in the building of Goiás state as a modern region integrated to the nation, the text also presents aspects of the preparations for holding the 8th Brazilian Congress on Education (1942) in Goiânia - Goiás. The theoretical framework results from studies aimed at understanding the construction of the interpretation of Brazil as a division and to rebuild the sertões imagined by a certain Brazilian intellectual elite.
nation; region; history of education in Goiás