Vivências e aprendizagens escolares na infância entre seres humanos e não humanos: a importância da relação com a natureza, segundo o olhar da pesquisa com crianças

Abstract

This study is the result of an in-depth research process that examines children's interaction with nature in Early Childhood Education, analyzed from the perspective of research with children, which recognizes them as active protagonists. The study is grounded in a reflection on the rupture between childhood and the natural environment in contemporary schools, questioning pedagogical methods that tend to confine and restrict children within classroom walls. The main objective was to understand how children interact with the environment and how school practices may influence this relationship, contributing to a more meaningful Early Childhood Education that enables children to become active participants in the teaching and learning process. The investigation is based on theoretical perspectives that approach childhood as a historical and social phenomenon, considering the right to high-quality Early Childhood Education and the importance of interactions and play. Methodologically, this is a qualitative study developed through action research, carried out in the daily routine of an Early Childhood Education classroom in the municipal public school system of Ituiutaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where the researcher also works as the lead teacher. This approach is connected to ActorNetwork Theory (ANT), which supported the analyses in this study and understands education as a relational process in which both human and non-human actors contribute to the formation of meaningful experiences. Data production followed a planned set of actions developed collaboratively with the children and implemented in ways that gave meaning to the construction of knowledge about the topic under study. Participant observation, audio and video recordings, and field notes were used as forms of documentation, always respecting the cyclical, reflective, and collaborative nature of the action research process. The practices carried out revealed that experiences with the natural environment intensify learning that goes beyond technical and prescriptive knowledge. In this sense, action research contributed to establishing the study as a space of listening, where pedagogical actions were constructed in dialogue with everyday life and with the subjects involved in it. Experiences such as playing with soil, modeling clay, planting, exploring school spaces, and recording activities on video revealed forms of participation expressed through gestures, speech, expressions, movements, choices, and interactions with the environment. These actions reinforce that the teaching and learning process is only complete when children feel safe to experiment, investigate, imagine, create, move, and experience the world they inhabit. As a final outcome, an Educational Product was developed in the form of a documentary video, systematizing the lived experiences. Rather than concluding, the study affirms that strengthening the relationship between children and nature within the school environment is not merely a methodological choice, but an ethical and political stance that recognizes childhood as a stage of knowledge production, social participation, and the formation of critical, sensitive, and engaged subjects.