Social memory and representations of the discovery of Brazil: Portuguese history textbooks

Abstract

The representations of the memories of the Portuguese society, and of its history, circulate and are transmitted through the media, but are also spread and (re)legitimated through the themes that compose school curricula. The aim of this study was to analyse the contents of history textbooks used in grammar and high schools. For the younger groups of our society, these textbooks are a privileged mean in the construction and actualization of the social representations of the history of the discovery of Brasil. Two textbooks were selected from three different educational levels, and they were analysed via two different methodologies. The results show differences concerning the structure and the thematic content of the textbooks, revealing some heterogeneity between them, as well as between the three educational levels. This heterogeneity suggests the existence of a qualitative differentiation at the level of social representations that are spread through young people by means of the textbooks.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v17i2.451