A fé pelas palavras: trajetória de Judith Tranjan na educação metodista

Abstract

This study interprets Judith Tranjan strajectoryin Methodist education in an church schoolenvironment. By way of her narratives and writings, in religious print materials, it offers a biography of Judith in the various settings where she was active: as a student and then teacher at the Instituto de Educação in Rio de Janeiro (then Brazil s federal district), at the Sunday School, teaching and writing for children and teachers and, as an author writing for female readerships. The chosen starting point is given by her admission to the Instituto de Educação in 1932 and broadens out until 1968, the year of her last article in the Methodist Church. From her narrated and written words, it seeks traces that tell of Judith Tranjan spresence in the public religious space and attest to her history in Methodism. Her stature in the church is representative of the histories of various other women who do not figure among the icons of Protestantism. From that perspective, the questions posed are: what place did Judith Tranjanoccupy in Methodist education? How do her writings reflect churches thinking on education at the time? In the endeavour to answer these questions, the first chapter situates Judith Tranjanamong the other Protestant women who, through their access to schooling, were able to perform functions within and outside the churches,some achieving notable standing in public affairs. Next, her memories as a trainee and then teacher at the Instituto de Educação are presented, together with her participation as a collaborator in the Compêndios de EnsinoReligioso Jesus, o melhor amigo, published in 1949 by the ConfederaçãoEvangélica do Brasil, for primary school Religious Education and adopted, that same year, by the Instituto de Educação. The second chapter examines Judith s writingsbetween 1949 and 1951 for two Protestant publications the Revista do CursoIntermediário da Escola Dominicaland the Revistado Professor da Escola Dominical,also published by the ConfederaçãoEvangélica do Brasil so as to point up pedagogical practices that Judith deployed, outside the school context, in connection with her teaching at the Sunday School of Vila Isabel Methodist Church and the technical and theological training of teachers who worked in that same teaching setting. Some premises of the New School movement that Judith had learned at the Instituto de Educação were incorporated into the lessons that she prescribed in the two publications examined. The third chapter relates Judith Tranjan s words to the representations of things female preached by Protestants, particularly Methodists. In that light, the articles that Judith wrote for the magazine VozMissionária, on subjects such as marriage, family and motherhood, point to the home as the prime setting for women s activities,demonstrating in a way a little of her own history. Accordingly, studying Judith Tranjan s trajectory in Methodist education is an opportunity to legitimate her voice and those of so many other women who remain silenced or are made invisible in Protestant historiography