Uses of Montessori pedagogy in Brazil: actions of Piper de Lacerda Borges and Eny Caldeira

Abstract

In this article we seek to understand the pedagogical actions of Piper de Lacerda Borges and Eny Caldeira in favor of the circulation of the Montessori method in Brazil from the end of the 1940s onwards. In order to do this, we conceive that pedagogical models are constructed in specific times and places, they circulate through different mediators and supports and on different scales, apart from being appropriated in educational systems. The sources used are written texts published in educational journals and newspapers. Piper and Eny had a common interest in the Montessori method, but they used it in a specific way: Piper appropriated the Montessori method in light of Theosophy and the Social Service field, where she worked as a teacher, and Eny in the pedagogical field.