EDUCATION AND POWER IN IMPERIAL BRAZIL: COLÉGIO PEDRO II AND COLLÈGE DE SION AS INSTRUMENTS OF ELITE FORMATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the formation and role of Colégio Pedro II and Collège de Sion in the context of the Brazilian Empire and the Second Reign, highlighting their function as elite institutions and spaces of social inequality reproduction. It emphasizes the influence of French culture and pedagogy on the curriculum and organization of these schools, which became educational models for the Brazilian aristocracy. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social capital, symbolic capital, and habitus, the study examines how these institutions contributed to the maintenance of the social order, preparing both the country’s future leaders and young women destined for the domestic sphere. It concludes that, by privileging certain social groups, these schools reinforced the boundaries between elites and popular classes, legitimizing cultural and social hierarchies in Imperial Brazil.