Educação em prisões no cenário cearense: entre a história e as memórias de Jovita Alves Feitosa

Abstract

This paper outlines Jovita Alves Feitosa‘s educational career, a teacher that dedicated twenty-two years of her life to guarantee the rights of the people who are deprived from freedom in the state of Ceará. In the methodological perspective, oral history was adopted as the research technique. Seven interviews were conducted with this teacher from February to October 2015 in order to reveal the complexities that are relevant to reveal the history and the memory of education in Ceará’s prisons. The interview speeches were accurately transcribed and then submitted to the respondent’s validation. The results showed that Jovita Alves Feitosa was a pioneer in dedicating herself to education in Ceará's prisons. She started her career as a teacher at the Female Penitentiary and then, for the great results of her work, she was nominated to the Educational Coordination of the Penal System of Ceará, standing there for more than fifteen years. Overwhelming dedication, sensibility and ethical commitment, besides her constant faith in the power of education transformation were the main features of Jovina Alves Feitosa’s professional trajectory. This teacher actively helped to turn Ceará into a national reference as the Brazilian state with the highest rate of prisoners involved in educational activities. The history of education in Ceará is intrinsically related to the professional journey undertaken by Jovita Alves Feitosa: an eternal creator of dreams.