Concepções de criança na educação infantil de 0 a 4 anos: a relação entre os discursos e as práticas docentes

Abstract

The goal of this research was to analyze the conceptions of children that can be seen in teachers' pedagogical speeches and practices of a Centro de Educação Infantil (CEI) - Center of Children Education -, directly managed by public education of São Paulo city, located in the east area of São Paulo. In order to do so, 12 teachers answered specific questions and the teaching practices of two teachers that work with 4-year old children were observed. As a contribution to this research, the studies of Contreras (2012), Corsaro (2011), Sarmento (2009) and Freire (1997) were considered in order to better understand the relations of the children education teacher in the process of teaching-learning of 0 to 4-year old children. It was observed that most of teachers have an intuitive practice, which does not consider educational theories, and is funded in experiences that were routinely lived. In addition to that, the activities performed does not significantly contribute to the potential of the children's learning process, for example: restricted use of spaces and materials; long periods inside of the classroom; and teachers do not observe children in order to mediate and intercept them, on the contrary, they just watch their behavior. It can be noted that the discipline control and the children's hygiene, alimentation and sleeping are the main concerns of teachers' acts. The intentionally performed pedagogical dimension is compromised, considering that the teachers' formation and practices do not cover the know-how that would allow them to create learning situations to develop children's autonomy as something essential in their formation as a critical and autonomous individual, who knows how to take advantage of their rights and how to perform their duties. Besides this practice, named here as intuitive, it was also verified that the teacher's speech is full of conceptions that are not an object of self/collective reflection, but are more repetitive than reflexive in relation to the teacher's know-how. Thus, this research concludes that the formation and practice do not guarantee a critical and reflexive appropriation of children's real needs. To change this scenario and implement an education with quality to the first childhood, the teacher's continued formation, in the aspects of the school's collective formation, needs to be comprehended and performed as a reflexive instrument that prioritizes the theory-practice relation, in a way that teachers recognize themselves as critical and intellectual workers.