Conceptions of childhood, play and interaction in Brazilian state curricula

Abstract

This paper is part of a macro-project funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The study aimed to analyse the process of materialising the National Common Curriculum Base (BNCC) in five Early Childhood Education curricula in Brazilian states - Bahia, Goiás, Pará, Paraná and São Paulo - with an emphasis on conceptions of childhood, play and interaction. The research is based on the theoretical frameworks of historical-critical pedagogy and historical-cultural psychology, whose epistemological and ontological basis is the method of historical-dialectical materialism. As for the methodological procedures, a documentary analysis of the Early Childhood Education curricula of the aforementioned states was adopted, as well as testimonies from managers who took part in a didactic-training intervention carried out as part of the macro-project. The analysis pointed that although the curricula are specific, they are in line with the BNCC. In the process of drawing up the curricula, the involvement of both public and private actors was evident, with the emphasis on institutions representing the market, such as the curricula in Bahia, Goiás and Paraná. Although all of them announce, in their discourse, the importance of play and interaction as the structuring axes of Early Childhood Education, there are tensions between the attempt to adapt national guidelines to local realities, the risk of standardisation and the emptying of the curriculum.This paper is part of a macro-project funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The study aimed to analyse the process of materialising the National Common Curriculum Base (BNCC) in Early Childhood Education curricula in five Brazilian states - Bahia, Goiás, Pará, Paraná, and São Paulo - with an emphasis on conceptions of childhood, play, and interaction. The research is based on the theoretical frameworks of historical-critical pedagogy and historical-cultural psychology, whose epistemological and ontological basis is the method of historical-dialectical materialism. For the methodological procedures, a documentary analysis of the Early Childhood Education curricula of the aforementioned states was adopted, as well as testimonies from managers who took part in a didactic-training intervention carried out as part of the macro-project. The analysis showed that although the curricula are specific, they are in line with the BNCC. In the process of drawing up the curricula, the involvement of both public and private actors was evident, with emphasis on institutions representing the market, such as the curricula in Bahia, Goiás, and Paraná. Although all the states affirm, in their discourse, the importance of play and interaction as the structuring axes of Early Childhood Education, there are conflicts between the attempt to adapt national guidelines to local realities, the risk of standardisation, and the emptying of the curriculum