Sociology gets expelled from school

the Capanema Reform of 1942 and the disputes of the Catholics over the discipline in Brazil

Abstract

The article analyzes, from a historical perspective, the intellectual and political context in which sociology was excluded as a mandatory subject from the secondary school curriculum following the Capanema Reform of 1942. Starting from the interpretations that crystallized around this key episode for the history of social sciences in Brazil, it seeks to nuance and complicate current readings by considering the available primary sources, especially those present in the Gustavo Capanema Archive. As it is argued, the exclusion of sociology from schools was closely linked to the disputes surrounding its scientificity waged by Catholics, an important fraction of the support base of the Estado Novo. As can be seen from the opinions of Catholic intellectuals who opposed the permanence of sociology as a school subject, the criticism pointed to the secularist and anti-clerical views that that science could convey. In this sense, political and ideological reasons, and not just pragmatic and operational ones, were at the root of its exclusion from the curriculum