Cartography in Textbooks Published Between 1824 and 2002 in Brazil - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 82

Another important aspect that we perceived with the analysis refers to the work
done with the notions of “Symbols” and “Legend”. Even though some textbooks
dealt with them during the thirties and forties, these contents reappear as
prescriptions in all consulted textbooks that were published from 1972 to 2002.
At this moment, there is a need to carry out some parallelisms between the domain
of school knowledge and the domain of production of academic knowledge. We
understand that working with these subjects has become more powerful due to the
discussion in the academic sphere about the systematization of thematic cartogra-
phy which is specially reinforced by the studies of Semiology of Graphics devel-
oped by Professor J. Bertin, from the end of the sixties to the beginning of the
seventies (Martinelli 2000 , 2007 ). This parallelism points to an educational trans-
position from this academic knowledge to a knowledge to be taught, prepared
especially by authors of textbooks. On the other hand, the development of learning
activities directed to the interpretation of maps, which is recommended by the last
three curricular programmes analyzed, is not a procedure that is transposed to
textbooks.
However, as a general rule, we can notice a process, from the seventies on, that
makes Cartography subjects become more complex and the contents prescribed by
the curricular programmes and textbooks, during the nineties, more comprehensive.
We can see again the process of debates within the academic domain reflecting on
the work of professors and authors of official curricula and teaching materials. This
is because, right during this period, more accurate researches on how to teach
Cartography were conducted in Brazil. At first they occurred by means of studies of
few researchers, like the case of pioneering researches developed by Professor
L ´ via de Oliveira, from Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), in Rio Claro,
during the seventies (Almeida 2007 ).
However, from 1995 on, for the first time in Brazil, it was established a forum for
debates concerning Cartography and its implications in teaching Geography, called
“Colloquies of Cartography for Children”, which are held approximately every 2 or
3 years. The colloquies became, therefore, a way to exchange information and to
spread researches through their annals. The academic production in this field of
research has also been spread and featured prominently in periodicals and
newspapers, becoming the core for discussions in important events, like in the
National Meeting of Geography Teaching (ENEG) and the Meeting of Geography
Teaching Practice (ENPEG). Thus, it is possible to notice in the last decades, a
process of transposition of this academic production to a knowledge to be taught
through the curricular programmes and teaching materials.
6.5 Conclusions
According to what we observed a great part of the group of geographical concepts
and, more specifically, of the geographical concepts prescribed in the national
teaching materials, doesn't have its origins in a systematic academic knowledge.