Abstract

MONCAO, Maria Aparecida Guedes. Scenes of everyday life in early childhood education: challenges facing the integration of care and education. Educ. Pesqui. [online]. 2017, vol.43, n.1, pp.161-176. ISSN 1678-4634.  https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-9702201608147080.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the routine of children in early childhood education, especially of those aged zero to four years, focusing on the moments of rest and feeding. At this stage of educational service, the dialogical relationships between adults and children and the integration between care and education are fundamental assumptions for a quality early childhood education, a condition to ensure the fundamental rights of babies and very young children. This qualitative investigation consisted of a case study of ethnographic nature, conducted in 2010 and 2011, in a Centro de Educação Infantil (CEI – Early Childhood Education Center) of the public school system of São Paulo city, Brazil, which serves children aged from 0 to 4 years. The methodological procedures included participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the CEI team and children’s families. The investigation involved literature review, and the main references were Barbosa, Batista, Coutinho, Guimarães, Korczak, Tristão, and Wallon. The results evidenced that the emotions expressed by children at the times of meals and rest are, to a great extent, disregarded. I have also found contradictions between the propositions of integrating care and education included in the pedagogical project and teachers’ discourses and practices with the children. The study concluded that it is essential to include the topics of care of the body – food, hygiene, rest, and health – as part of continuing teacher education and the weekly planning conducted in institutions of early childhood education.

Keywords : Early childhood education; Routine in early childhood education; Teacher-children relationship; Integration between care and education.

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