For or against Castilho? Network of supporters in the brazilian empire

Abstract

The Portuguese poet António Feliciano de Castilho (1800-1875) created the Castilho Method for teaching reading, and came to Brazil in 1855 to disseminate it. Aiming to contribute to the teaching of reading and writing, he proposed different reforms in primary and secondary education in Portugal and Brazil, incorporated into the Modernity project, in which the school based on traditionalism was designed as a stage for experimentation in a project of pedagogical and social redemption. Despite having received several resistances and the cancellation of his course, Brazilian and Portuguese subjects who lived in the Brazilian court and who were considered “friends” by the poet appeared in the historical sources. The major methodological challenge of this article consisted in tracking this network of supporters of this educational project in the Brazilian empire. This analysis will be based on authors such as Albuquerque (2019), Boto (2012) and Castilho’s memorialist works (1902).