História e Memória da Educação Pré-escolar na Democracia Participativa em Uberlândia (1983-1988)

Abstract

This dissertation entitled "History and memory of pre-school education in participatory democracy in Uberlândia in the years 1983 to 1988" has the general objective of investigating the history and memory of pre-school education in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, in a known period management of participatory democracy. The question that mobilizes the research is to analyze the actions of implementation of this education for children from 4 to 6 years old, called pre-school period. To understand this historical reality, specific objectives were defined: to discuss the concepts of oral history and memory considered those that best meet the general objective of this research; to analyze the historical conception regarding the child and childhood and to identify such conceptions in the narratives of the professionals of the period; analyze the historical question of participatory democracy and its consequences for the city of Uberlândia; apprehend the concrete actions that promoted teacher training to work in this segment, the theoretical aspects that supported this option and the impacts on the provisional curriculum proposal for pre-school. The dissertation is linked to the Postgraduate program in the area of Education. In the line of history and historiography of Education, to the literacy research center.The time frame of the study encompasses a moment of major changes resulting from the end of the military dictatorship in the country with the emergence of the most diverse demands, including educational ones. In the context of the city of Uberlândia, the action plan of the candidate Zaire Rezende brought as a proposal to manage and develop projects aimed at social areas, that is why it became known as the government of participatory democracy. In the field of early childhood education, the municipality assumed, in the mid-1980s, pre-school care. This modality was incorporated into the Education and Culture Secretariat and the Pre-School Division was created. A team was formed to build a pedagogical and philosophical proposal that addressed the educational needs of pre-school children. To meet the research objectives, primary and secondary sources are used. The primary sources are interviews, legislation on the subject, photographs (iconographic sources), written press (newspapers), among others. The secondary sources are composed by the bibliographic production of authors who have looked at the theme in its most diverse developments. This is a qualitative research, using thematic oral history as methodology, using the semi-structured interview. Four participants were interviewed whose choice criterion was the fact that they participated in the process of implementing the preschool in the Zaire Rezende administration (1983-1988). The analysis of the different sources allows us to conclude that there was an innovative perspective in the care of children aged 4 to 6 years in the period. An investment was made in the systematic training of teachers in order to transform the teaching-learning process from a model centered on mechanized practices, to a proposal based on theoretical defenders of the constructivist perspective of learning. This option for pre-school education was important to rethink the concept of children and pre-school education in the city of Uberlândia (1983-1988) and considered the most suitable for a management that was intended to be a participatory democracy.