Biography and cinema in History of Education: aspects of the teaching profession in the movie movie ‘Saint John Baptist de La Salle: patron saint of teachers’

Abstract

This article discusses, based on the movie mentioned, paths of the teaching profession in the 17th century, highlighting the presence of the Catholic Church in this scenario and the simultaneous method used by The Brothers of the Christian Schools congregation. We seek to think the film as a source and object for the History of Education, considering its educational potential and the uses that have been made of this type of media by different groups and social actors. As the film is a biography, this concept as well as that of representation became the basis for thinking, from the life of a subject, about issues, processes, articulation, networks, tensions and disputes at stake in the French educational scenario in the 17th century. This discussion emphasizes the relationship between religion, media and education, which became procounced in Modernity, with media such as books, magazines, newspapers, radio, cinema, television and, today, the Internet. This movie production is therefore indicative of the position the Church has established and is still assuming with the cinema, not only being resistant, but using it pedagogically for its far-reaching potential in people formation.