Abstract

VIEIRA, Maria Nilceia de andrade  and  COCO, Valdete. Quality assessment in early childhood education: listening to the utterances of babies and children. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2023, vol.23, n.76, pp.297-321.  Epub Apr 05, 2023. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.23.076.ds12.

In the field of educational research related to early childhood education contexts, ethical, conceptual and methodological issues constitute major challenges. In dialogue with these questions, this article integrates a doctoral research completed in 2021 that focuses on formative experiences with institutional assessment in early childhood education. In a qualitative approach, anchored in Bakhtinian and Freirean theoretical-methodological references, it assumes a narrative research methodology of the investigation-training type with procedures of document analysis, application of a questionnaire, participant observation and production of narratives with teachers and workers who have experienced, in 2019, the evaluation process in a Municipal Center for Early Childhood Education (CMEI) in a municipality of Espírito Santo. In the scope of this text, we discuss the participation of children and babies in the institutional evaluation in relation to the movements performed and challenges stated by the participants when they are willing to listen to children's voices. The analyzes show different proposals for participation, point out the defense of the potential of children and babies to express opinions and preferences and make propositions about actions experienced in the CMEI and also highlight tensions that accompany these initiatives to guarantee their participation. It concludes, highlighting the mobilization of the subjects involved with the evaluative action and the recognition of challenges for its effectiveness in a democratic perspective. We defend the need for these moments of listening to permeate different situations of interactions and games, and for continuing education actions to include, as a guideline, reflections on the understanding of children's utterances and the importance of their participation in the evaluation process.

Keywords : Early childhood education; Participation; Children; Institutional assessment.

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