“What I do reveals what I feel”: memories and stories of educator Heleusa Câmara

Abstract

This paper is the first part of a trilogy, approaching the life story of Heleusa Câmara – an educator and activist from Vitória da Conquista – which demonstrates how a woman allows through her legacy to transform and inspire the lives of many people. The objective is to scrutinize, through the life story of the conqueror Heleusa Figueira Câmara, how her trajectory as an educator and her interventions in the teaching profession contributed to the construction of a legacy of memories that constitute a milestone in the history of education in Vitória da Conquista (BA) and inspires brazilian education. This is an empirical study and descriptive-exploratory type that were analyzed documents and carried out semi-structured interviews with subjects who, in some way, were related to the educator, such as neo-writers, volunteers, interns and scholarship holders, professors and collaborators who worked at Proler and students who participated in activities promoted by the Program. Therefore, the data collected received qualitative treatment. The results indicate that the life story of the educator Heleusa Câmara was oriented towards the exercise of libertarian and citizenship practices, that is, throughout her life trajectory, Heleusa not only raised the banner that knowledge frees, but, above all, defended daily actions that freed the subjects.