Editorial memory and academic culture: Afrânio Mendes Catani and the history of Educação e Pesquisa

Abstract

The interview granted by Afrânio Mendes Catani to Roni Cleber Dias de Menezes is part of the fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of Educação e Pesquisa, the journal of the School of Education at the University of São Paulo. Catani’s testimony reconstructs the historical trajectory of the journal, from the period when it was still titled Revista da Faculdade de Educação, emphasizing the role of the former Publications Committee and the material conditions under which editorial work was carried out. He describes the lack of administrative structure, limited financial resources, and reliance on voluntary collaboration by faculty and staff, highlighting the collective and artisanal nature of scholarly production during the 1980s and 1990s. The narrative revisits internal tensions, leadership disputes, and the process of consolidating the journal under its new title, Educação e Pesquisa, prior to its inclusion in the SciELO database. Blending humor, critique, and recollection, Catani’s account sheds light on often-invisible aspects of university life, revealing the mediations, improvisations, and negotiations that sustained the editorial project. His words inscribe themselves in the institutional history of the School of Education, showing how the journal’s consolidation mirrors the development of an academic culture grounded in public commitment to knowledge and in collective persistence amid Brazil’s structural limitations in higher education.