O lugar da “Turma de Creche” numa Escola Municipal de Educação Infantil de Juiz de Fora/Minas Gerais: práticas, tempos e espaços das crianças de três anos de idade

Abstract

This research, linked to the line of research Discourse, Practices, Ideas and Subjectivities in Educational Processes of the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), aimed to investigate the place that “day care classes” occupies a Municipal School in Juiz de Fora/Minas Gerais, with regard to the times, spaces and practices aimed at three-year-old children. The study is anchored in Lev Vigotski's Historical-Cultural perspective on child development, highlighting the role of the environment in this process, in dialogue with Paulo Freire's ideas about education. This is a qualitative research of the Case Study type, which used participant observation, video recording, photography, document analysis (2019 Political-Pedagogical Project of 2019 and the Curricular Proposal of the data) as instruments and techniques of data production. Municipal Network of Juiz de Fora 2010) and the semi-structured interview with the Reference Teacher and the Pedagogical Coordinator. The observations were made during the months of October to December 2019, twice a week. The triangulation of data was adopted as a methodological strategy in order to favor a greater understanding of the object of study. The place of this class in the school was questioned based on what was recorded about the relationships of children with organized spaces and the planning of educational activities. In the analysis of the data, there is a confrontation between the legislation, the conceptions of children and childhood pointed out in the Political-Pedagogical Project of the school, the speeches of the teacher and coordinator, and the experiences observed on the school floor. The analyzes indicated that, although the centrality of play is recognized in national and local documents about working with children in the context of Early Childhood Education and in the speeches of the research subjects, playing is presented as a secondary or minor activity, in addition to being show schooled in the organization of times, spaces and materials. Practices and meanings based on an education and care of bodies for submission, obedience and control are perceived, going against the legal and scientific achievements of the field. To think about the place of three-year-olds in the early childhood school is to think about the reappropriation of the place of creation and authorship of children, their specificities of development, and the appreciation of practices committed to childhood experiences and the right to quality education.