A Coluna Olimpíada de Matemática do Jornal O Povo (1987-1996): entre documentos e narrativas

Abstract

This paper addresses a discussion regarding the underlying educational measure from the Mathematics Olympiad Newspaper Column, published weekly in the O Povo Newspaper from the City of Fortaleza, from 1987 to 1996, during Brazilian society’s new political phase highlighted in Brazil’s history as the New Republic. The authors are professors Guilherme Lincoln Aguiar Ellery, João Marques Pereira, Marcondes Cavalcante França and Raimundo Thompson Gonçalves (in memoriam), all from the Mathematics Department of the Federal University of Ceará. This theme is part of a broad area of research into the history and memory of different school disciplines, especially for secondary school level Mathematics. The general goal of this research is to trace a comprehensive historical narrative of the Mathematical Olympiad Column, identifying the newspaper column as an educational measure to disseminate and preserve knowledge, highlighting its key role in the pedagogical context of primary and secondary school levels at the time. As a secondary goal, the analysis of how the newspaper column was capable of presenting to society, in a continuous, uninterrupted and long lasting manner, a holistic and interdisciplinary vision of the study and teaching of Mathematics as a school subject. In this sense, this paper seeks to understand the trajectory of the newspaper column by means of a critical outlook regarding the way the column systematized mathematical knowledge, from a republican perspective. The central idea is to deepen our understanding of how the authors were able to approach the pedagogical context of teaching Mathematics at the secondary school level, through an analytical description of the content and discovery, stemming from the authors` perception as well as clues that may shed some light regarding its genesis, continuity, uninterrupted nature and longevity