Construindo sentidos para a inclusão das crianças de seis anos de idade no ensino fundamental: um diálogo com professores

Abstract

The present work was a result of a qualitative research under a historical cultural perspective aimed at understanding the different meanings first-year primary school teachers are providing through their discourse for including six-year-old children in this school grade. The theories by Lev Semenovich Vygotsky and Mikhail Bakhtin, who were the major representatives of the historical cultural perspective, proved to be a solid basis for carrying out the research. Four first-year primary school teachers from two schools of the Municipal School Network of Juiz de Fora were selected as subjects, one school being ranked as Primary School and the other as Secondary School. Apart from data collecting by means of interviews with the teachers, the educational policy guidelines from these schools were analysed, and some in loco observations were made and recorded as field work. Data analysis was based on the works by Aguiar (2000, 2001, 2005), and Aguiar & Ozella (2006) and was divided up into three meaninful blocks: (i) the new educational arrangement: impacts and challenges; (ii) childhood, development and learning; and (iii) reflections on dichotomies. In this research the meanings constructed for the inclusion of six-year old children in the nine-year school schedule were found to be built through the pedagogical imagery about the work to be done in both primary and secondary schools and the work to be done with six-year-old children. Lack of pedagogical support and knowledge about official documents guiding the work with six-year-olds were also found, apart from the need for more thorough theoretical framework on the teachers´ part and for a consistent process of meaning construction and knowledge search which was established by the new educational arrangement. The importance of carrying out continued research in this area was also highlighted.