Educação de Jovens e Adultos em Volta Redonda: trajetórias forjadas no aço

Abstract

This research has delved into primary sources, in collections and documentary records of the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional CSN (National Steelworks Company), ranging from 1940-1960, and the memory of ex-workers from the industry, as oral sources, as a means of getting to know the actions in education and formation of working adults, aiming to answer the following question: how did the schooling and professional qualification processes get done in the early days of the Usina Presidente Vargas (President Vargas Plant). To that end, it has researched the process of formation in the city of Volta Redonda, born to supply the needs of the basic industry, and how the adults (almost always illiterate) that worked at the plant since its building, as construction workers, and then after, as industry laborers in the various jobs required, got to it. The theoretical framework was based on the education law of the time, and on national and international concepts of adult education in order to comprehend the meanings developed in that place; A number of authors that have also studied the history of the city s development and the industry s implantation were also precious historical sources. The analysis of the documentary sources was born from this reference frame, complemented by the memories of deponents that contributed elements to the understanding of the documentation, almost always validating it. The subjects of the research were ex-laborers of the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, from 1940 to 1970, in the municipality of Volta Redonda. The study was justified in the need of unraveling memories and rebuilding, as much as possible, the history of education of adults in Rio de Janeiro, specifically in the Médio Paraíba area. In the end, what can be said is related to how professional formation processes were intensified by the CSN, and the schooling ones were not, almost always being done by the workers themselves, outside the factories doors, even when in a situation of scarce schooling or lack thereof of the ones who worked at the most diverse posts, demanding of formal knowledge supposedly acquired in regular schooling. Relating to the workers, the professional stimulus was linked to the continued formation for the exercise of labor, what meant formation, qualification and perfectioning. Success in the offered courses was contemplated with better wages and even change in posts. However, the company s long-term plan was to educate the worker s children in order to make them future employees, to such end that, not few times, the company supported and endorsed Volta Redonda s municipal education network