Memory Centers and research in the history of education: collections and possibilities

Abstract

This work aims to present and discuss the use of school memory centers for research in the History of Education in Rio Grande do Norte. In this study, we analyze the Memory Portal Linked to the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) and the Documentation and Memory Center (NDM) under the responsibility of the President Kennedy Higher Education Institute (IFESP - RN). The two school memory centers are linked to vocacional education institutions. For this work, we seek to answer the following questions: what types of fonts are available in the collections of these school memory centers? and which thematic axes can be researched from the study in the investigated memory centers? This research is developed from the perspective of Public History and discusses the relationship between History and Memory, especially from the contributions of Le Goff (2013) and Pierre Nora (1993), and on archives from Farge (2017) and Mogarro (2005). The Memory Centers associated with school institutions constitute important virtual research collections for research in the History of Education, as they denote the interest and concern of institutions in preserving their documentary archives that tell the history of these spaces from different elements. Photographs, oral testimonies, school administration documents, organizational data and institutional structure, in addition to information about students and teachers document the history and compose the memory of these institutions displayed in the digital collections that make up the investigated memory centers. The various research possibilities arising from the study in the these centers are also highlighted, referring, for example, to the history of school institutions, school subjects and intellectual history potiguar.