Intellectual political instructive leadership at the university

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the trajectory of Prof. Dr. Father João Edênio dos Reis Valle, as professor, researcher and manager at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo – PUC-SP, throughout the approximately fifty years of his professional relationship with this university. The focus of the study is upon the years in which Prof. Edênio Valle served as Vice-Rector for Community Affairs (1976-1984) of PUC-SP. This period is recognized as a critical time in the history of the university, in which the current identity profile of PUC-SP was forged as a politically, socially and culturally committed university. The decisive participation of Prof. Edênio Valle in the construction of this profile is described and analyzed. The present text has a biographical approach regarding the Prof. Edênio Valle’s professional trajectory, and a historical-institutional approach regarding the events that occurred in PUC-SP in the period. The study predominantly used sources where Prof. Edênio Valle himself recorded his perception on the trajectories and events in focus. These sources include articles, interviews, letters, testimonials, to maximize the testimonial value of this text. The conclusion of this study corroborates the representation commonly made of Prof. Edênio Valle, inside and outside PUC-SP, as having been an admirable intellectual and political institutional leader, with wide instructive historical reach for PUC-SP, not only throughout the period of the events here analyzed, but also to the present day and to the future.