A Educação Infantil e o Ensino Fundamental: a centralidade das infâncias e brincadeiras de uma escola com crianças

Abstract

Childhood has been a subject of study in our country, especially in the last decades, which has led to advances in the field of scientific knowledge and given children guarantee of their rights. In the midst of these studies, the act of playing and education in school institutions have awaken debates and reflections on the policies that regulate the schooling of children. The objective of this research is to investigate the manifestations of the act of playing and entertainment and joyful activities in the school daily routine of the 2nd period of Early Childhood Education and the 1st year of Elementary School Education having childhood and children as the main focus. We sought to understand how the act of playing, entertainment and joyful activities and childhood are conceived by teachers and children during the transition process from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School Education at Colégio de Aplicação da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (ESEBA-UFU).The research was structured based on the qualitative approach and the participant research modality. Everyday school routine observation and documentary analysis were used as research instruments that contemplated the intentions of this study. The methodological trajectory guided our looks for the organization of the data collected in thematic axes. In the first axis, “Toys and games: being a child in school experiences”, we propose the discussion about children’s experiences related to childhood, the act of playing and entertainment and joyful activities in the school daily routine, characterizing the games played, toys, relationships and interactions and manifestations by means of multiple languages which children express in their school everyday routine. In the second axis, “Intercrossing experiences: interactions and relationships on experiences in the transition from the 2nd period of Early Childhood Education to the 1st year of Elementary School”, we discussed the experiences, interactions and relationships that children experienced in the transition from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School Education. In the last axis, “The act of playing and entertainment and joyful activities in school daily routine: possibilities within educational institutions”, we discuss possibilities and paths that can provide and guarantee spaces and times for the act of playing, respecting the childhood phase and the specificities of children without losing the context of literacy. The data collected during the development of the investigation pointed out that the institution shares theoretical principles and actions that value the childhood phase, the act of playing and entertainment and joyful activities. In the process of transition from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School Education, children initially expressed their wishes and expectations about the spaces and times to play in the first year of Elementary School Education. However, by using their multiple languages, children pointed out the need to respect their spaces and times for learning, playing and experiencing childhood in the school context, regardless the level studied, highlighting the importance of the act of playing and entertainment and joyful activities as the main activities in both contexts. We therefore sought to provide itineraries that allow us to point out some experiences as possible contributions that value these playful activities as fundamental elements for the development of children from the plurality of experiences and significant experiences they have had at school.