Abstract

CAETANO, Camila Gomes Arellaro  and  SAUL, Ana Maria. THEATRE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CITIZENSHIP: Early childhood education in the city of Bologna. Revista Teias [online]. 2025, vol.26, n.81, e90325.  Epub Nov 03, 2025. ISSN 1982-0305.  https://doi.org/10.12957/teias.2025.90325.

This article presents an illustrative case study of a democratic space built with art and education that had repercussions on public policies in the city of Bologna, Italy. Based on Paulo Freire's thinking and Freire's categories of dialogue, criticality, and participation, an analysis of the training of educators in the public early childhood network is presented, where theater is part of the construction of critical thinking and citizenship. The theater group La Baracca Testoni Ragazzi develops its actions with the support of local public policies, circulating through all daycare centers and public early childhood schools. For this study, an internship was carried out at the University of Bologna in the Department of Education Science of the early childhood educator training course, in addition to interviews with public agents, artists, and educators, dialogic meetings and observations of practices in daycare centers, theater, and the city's Department of Education. This is qualitative research with an illustrative case study procedure. The theoretical framework has Paulo Freire as the central author, followed by Elliot Eisner, Ernest Fischer and Augusto Boal. A Freirean conceptual framework centered on the humanizing political-pedagogical project is presented as a critical sieve for the analyses. The results announce that, to build a democratic society, a political project is necessary in which public policies are implemented in an integrated manner, especially culture, art and education, and this cannot be done without the participation of the school community and civil society, where theater is an important part of this construction.

Keywords : early childhood education; Paulo Freire; theater in education; teacher education..

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