THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE UFMA'S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL IN THE URBANIZATION PROCESS OF SÃO LUÍS (1960- 1980)

Abstract

This article discusses the process of implementation and installation of the University School of the Federal University of Maranhão in the context of modernizing teaching in the state (1960/1970) and its transfer and restructuring to the peripheral neighborhood of Vila Palmeira in São Luís as an Application School. The political and educational situation that made it possible to remove this integrated unit from the university campus as a school modality restricted to a small and selective clientele, for a poor community on the outskirts of the capital, is analyzed. The confrontations between strategies imposed by the state's educational policy/functionalist management and tactics of appropriation of teachers, employees, students, leaderships and community organizations belonging to a local culture, which in function of interconnected interests, defended the institution as an instance of belonging, permanence and survival, are pointed out. Newspapers, legislation and documentation from the school archive are used as sources guided by the theoretical-methodological reference of cultural history. It is concluded that the constant defense of the local community, teachers and employees by the role/place of the School of Application as a symbolic and concrete image of overcoming in this suburban neighborhood and its effectiveness as a school-laboratory, internship field and space for permanent and adult education, is a currency of exchange for these individuals to have access to the market of symbolic goods and a path to capitalize on possibilities of social ascension through schooling success.