A escola ao lado do rio: Literatura como tema gerador na construção de saberes da geografia no contexto da Educação Infantil

Abstract

It is observed that the Early Childhood Education curriculum is formed through the articulation of various socially constructed areas of knowledge, including geographical ones. This articulation plays a fundamental role in contributing to overall human development by fostering the development of competencies that are essential for this age group. However, many professionals have prioritized knowledge related to pre-literacy, sometimes neglecting essential knowledge for child development. Often, this prioritization occurs because there is uncertainty about how to approach themes and concepts that are inherently geographical. The school, as the environment where children live, and the surrounding landscape constitute a rich laboratory that can evoke various themes to be developed with the children. But how to approach these themes meaningfully with them? How to generate discussions that stimulate them to share their experiences and worldly knowledge? In Early Childhood Education, the stories told or read, which are part of the children's routine, present the possibility of combining world reading with themes from their everyday lives, as well as encouraging the formation of future readers, readers of the world. Thus, the general objective of this research is to verify how literature as a generative theme can contribute to the construction of geographical knowledge in the context of Early Childhood Education in the municipality of Uberlândia-MG. This verification was carried out through the development of an applied qualitative research, conducted through a workshop with 5-year-old children, with the main axis for the development of the work being the reading and rereading circle of the story, which addressed generative themes for discussions/interactions/exchange and knowledge construction, being planned and developed based on the historical-cultural perspective. Its development included activities such as: paintings, collages, making models, drawings, and fieldwork, which constituted an essential element for the development of the research, combined with story and conversation circles. Seeking to understand how children see, interpret, and represent the world, and valuing their childhood protagonism, narrative research methodology was chosen for data analysis, which played a primary role in constructing the data of this research. The data collected and analyzed show the significant contribution that literature, as a generative theme, has to offer in the development of geographical knowledge in the context of Early Childhood Education, enabling the group to share experiences and generate discussions, discoveries, perceptions of the world that, shared with the group, led to the construction of rich and meaningful knowledge in which everyone learns from each other. It is worth noting that this research was conducted with the approval of the ethics committee, CAAE: 69763823.1.0000.5152, and is part of the line of research Geographic Education and Social Representations.