Student marches: aspects of urban and school culture

Abstract

With a vision that focuses on student participation, this paper examines the rivalry between two schools in the city of Pelotas – Gonzaga, Catholic, and Pelotense, of secular education – which had its climax in the irreverent student marches performed by Pelotense pupils. The meaning and ramifications of these disputes in the urban socio-cultural context is the main point from which this study is developed, which emphasizes the decades from 1930s to 1960s – the time of explicit rivalry between the two schools; it is also a reflection of the conflict occurring in Brazil between the educational principles that supported them: secular teaching (non-denominational) and Catholic teaching.