Abstract

HADDAD, Lenira  and  CORDEIRO, Maria Helena. Social representations of pedagogy first year students about daycare center and preschool: a study in four Brazilian states. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.32, pp.15-35. ISSN 1981-416X.

The early childhood education encompasses two types of childcare that developed in parallel, forged in different traditions, identities and administrative inserts. In Brazil, LDB/96 redefines daycare center and preschool in order to differentiate themselves only in terms of the age they attend (0-3 years and 4-5 years respectively), assigning to both actions like caring and educating, on full or part-time. However, this understanding of their functions is not shared by common sense, which perpetuates the division of early childhood education, bringing closer education and schooling, on one hand, and care and custody, on the other. Thus, we sought in Moscovici’s Theory of Social Representations the theoretical and methodological tools for understanding the common sense about daycare center and preschool. 365 Pedagogy freshmen students took part in this research from four universities of four Brazilian states: 194 from UFAL (Alagoas), 67 from UFMT (Mato Grosso), 68 from Unesp (Presidente Prudente, SP) and 39 from UFMS (Mato Grosso do Sul). This article discusses the results found by the use of the technique of free association of the words daycare and preschool and by the closed questions of a questionnaire that compared these stages of early childhood education. For the major majority of the research subjects, daycare center and preschool are different, not in the same way understood officially, but by the functions traditionally assigned to these institutions, confirming that they exert an organizing function of the SR on the work of the early childhood education teacher, affecting the images that the students build about the work of this professional.

Keywords : Social Representations; Daycare Center; Preschool; Early Childhood Education.

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