A CRIANÇA, O BRINCAR E A EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL: O QUE PENSAM OS EDUCADORES DE UMA INSTITUIÇÃO PÚBLICA DO INTERIOR PAULISTA

Abstract

This study is linked to the Graduate Program in Education of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Campus of Três Lagoas) and was developed in the scope of the research line of Education, Childhood and Diversity. Our focus is to investigate the conceptions brought by the school unit agents regarding their ideas on childhood, children, playing, and early childhood education, as well as to understand and analyze if such teaching practices aligned with the elaboration of the school curriculum encompass an early education that addresses the particularities of children and childhood. This study is based on a methodology of qualitative approach and field research to investigate the organization of play in the educational proposal of the Escola Municipal de Educação Básica (EMEB – Municipal Elementary School) Lucilene do Nascimento, an institution of Early Childhood Education in the Municipal Education System of Araçatuba-SP. Based on the grounds and conception of the Childhood Sociology, our goal is to understand the child as historical, cultural and social subject, as well as the childhood as society's structural generational category. Such understanding allows to dimension the achievements and obstacles that have constituted Early Childhood Education over the years, in addition to the challenges that are still inherent to it. Therefore, it is important to understand how plays take on a structuring dimension on the daily routine of these institutions. For this purpose, according to authors of the Historical-Cultural Theory, playing is regarded as an essential dimension for child’s development and is structured from historical and social conditions, both transforming and enabling child’s development as a subject. Aligning the data gathered with the theoretical conceptions and dimensions addressed in this study, we found that the specificities of childhood are not acknowledged within the Early Childhood Education, which makes it fundamental to validate a conception through which children are recognized as historical, cultural and social actors. In the same way, we observed that playing is not understood or effective as an essential activity towards a humane development. Thus, the theory-practice relation in the curricular design of the Early Childhood Education faces challenges for an efficient interlocution in the teaching and learning process.

Keywords: Role Play. Child Culture. Development-learning