The Brazilian Centre and the Regional Centres for Educational Research were created within the structure of the National Institute for Pedagogical Studies (INEP) in 1955. The main objective of these centres was to promote the development of social science research on questions related to Brazilian education. These centres encouraged the development of research in the Federal District and in the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul. In order to develop the research projects, above all in the period 1956-1961, the INEP centres obtained the collaboration of a diversified group of social scientists who suggested interpretations, at times innovative, of the relations between schooling and social change in course at that time, at different speeds, in different regions of the country.