THE LANGUAGE OF CIVILIZATION AT THE EMPIRE’S MARGINS: CHALLENGES OF FRENCH INSTRUCTION IN THE PROVINCE OF SERGIPE (1830–1854)

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of teaching work in French private classes (aulas avulsas) in the Province of Sergipe during the Brazilian Empire (1830–1854). To this end, we analyzed and compared different sources: educational legislation of the period, contemporary newspapers, regulations of public instruction, inspection reports, and relevant historiography. The objective was to understand the working conditions of French teachers in Sergipe, considering factors such as precarious wages, difficulties in filling teaching posts, institutional instability, and low student attendance. The study is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of school discipline and school culture developed by Chervel (1990) and Julia (2001). The research showed that French teachers, when working within the aulas avulsas system, faced professional instability, low salaries, and the absence of standardized textbooks—factors that reveal the fragility of teaching work at the time. Thus, the so-called “language of civilization” was incorporated in an unstable and unequal manner at the margins of the Empire, exposing the limits and contradictions of public instruction in provincial contexts.