Pedagogy of Childhood(s) and the National Common Curricular Base: Perceptions of Early Childhood Education Professionals in Vacaria (RS)Resumo
This article4 analyzes and reflects on how Pedagogy of Early Childhood(s) can contribute to the implementation of the National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC) in the Early Childhood Education stage and contexts in the municipality of Vacaria (RS). The theoretical framework encompasses authors in the fields of childhood studies and public policy. It is a qualitative investigation, employing documentary research and focused interviews. The field research was conducted from February to November 2020 with fifteen early childhood education professionals in the municipality of Vacaria. Data were collected through interviews and interpreted using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis method, considering that this technique enables an objective, systematic, and qualitative description of the collected content, thereby facilitating interpretation. The results indicate that Early Childhood Education can contribute to the implementation of the BNCC in that it: a) proposes a pedagogical practice based on learning and development rights; b) considers children as subjects of rights; c) breaks with the welfare and schooling-oriented view of Early Childhood Education; and e) values different childhoods. In summary, theoretical and empirical analyses have shown that early childhood education professionals need to see in childhood pedagogy the possibilities for building a more just and humane society for all, valuing the diverse cultures of childhood and conceiving children as protagonists and agents of their history and culture. Furthermore, we must rethink the specific training of professionals working in these spaces and the ramifications of public policies, to collectively build a quality education system that is in line with the concepts of Childhood Pedagogy, so that children can enjoy their rights.
Keywords:
Pedagogy of Childhood(s); National Common Curricular Base; Early Childhood Education
Resumo
Este artigo4 analisa e reflete como a Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s) pode contribuir para a efetivação da Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) na etapa e nos contextos da Educação Infantil, no município de Vacaria (RS). Os referenciais teóricos abarcam autoras da área das infâncias e das políticas públicas. Trata-se de uma investigação qualitativa, que se utiliza de pesquisa documental e entrevista focalizada. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada de fevereiro a novembro de 2020 com quinze profissionais da Educação Infantil no município de Vacaria. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista e interpretados de acordo com o método de análise qualitativa de conteúdo de Mayring, considerando que essa técnica de investigação possibilita uma descrição objetiva, sistemática e qualitativa do conteúdo recolhido na busca realizada, facilitando a sua interpretação. Os resultados apontam que a Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s) pode contribuir na efetivação da BNCC na medida em que: a) propõe uma prática pedagógica embasada nos direitos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento; b) considera a criança como sujeito de direitos; c) rompe com a visão assistencialista e escolarizante da Educação Infantil; e) valoriza as diferentes infâncias. Em síntese, as análises teóricas e empíricas apontaram que se faz necessário que as/os profissionais da Educação Infantil vislumbrem na Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s) as possibilidades para a edificação de uma sociedade mais justa e humanizada para todas/os, valorizando as diversas culturas da infância e concebendo as crianças como protagonistas e agentes da sua própria história e cultura. Além disso, torna-se imprescindível repensarmos sobre a formação específica das/os profissionais que atuam nesses espaços e sobre os desdobramentos das políticas públicas, a fim de construirmos coletivamente uma educação de qualidade pactuada com as concepções da Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s), para que as crianças possam desfrutar dos seus direitos.
Palavras-chave:
Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s); Base Nacional Comum Curricular; Educação infantil
Introduction
Since its preliminary drafting – the so-called “version zero” – the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), developed between 2012 and 2015, overlooked and dismissed by many social actors, and officially approved in 2017 based on its final version, has sparked numerous debates, disputes, and challenges from scientific communities that have long been engaged in research on public policy, childhood education, school curriculum, teacher training in basic education, and the role of universities in shaping educational actors. Initially, Early Childhood Education was not included in the document; its inclusion came in 2013 with the amendment of Article 26 of the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) by Law No. 12,796, amidst intense debates and disagreements within the field. The version zero contributed by placing greater emphasis on learning and development rights and by reducing the focus on learning expectations.
Between 2012 and 2015, the idea emerged that Early Childhood Education needed to be included in the document. Thus, what came to be known as version zero of the BNCC was consolidated: a set of concepts and principles that did not outline specific skills, only competencies – unlike what was later detailed (Traversini; Fochi, 2020).
It should also be noted that, while the BNCC has been discussed and questioned by a group of researchers committed to the processes and advances involving early childhood education, the document was promoted and disseminated by corporate groups in partnership with the Ministry of Education. This occurred through a corporate discourse aimed at ensuring student learning outcomes and the development of competencies.
The BNCC encompasses Basic Education, starting from Early Childhood Education, but it becomes more prominent in the early and final years of Elementary Education, extending through to High School. Its aim is to be implemented across different educational networks, institutions, and in the pedagogical practices of teachers through a set of practices, strategies, and actions.
Faced with the challenge of implementing a National Common Core Curriculum for Basic Education, many teachers, education researchers, education departments, universities, and management and teaching teams have organized forums for dialogue, study, research, and training in an attempt to understand and deepen their knowledge of the theoretical foundations that underpin the curriculum, as well as to assess its requirements.
In addition, recent studies in the field of childhood point to the need for a Pedagogy of Childhood(s), which, according to Barbosa (2010), consists of a set of foundations and guidelines for pedagogical action that take children and the multiple conceptions of childhood in different educational spaces as their reference point.
From this perspective, Childhood Education is realized in contemporary times based on a critical, historical, political, sociological, and anthropological view of the concepts of children and childhood, which are so emerging that they need to be discussed and analyzed in the current context, thus differing from child-centered pedagogies, which began with the New School movements.
In this context of disputes and challenges, there is a clear need to deepen our knowledge of Childhood Education and the BNCC for Early Childhood Education. Furthermore, we need to reflect on the challenges and possibilities of its construction and implementation in the context of Early Childhood Education, using theoretical foundations and support from authors who write about childhood, educational policies, child development, cultures, and educational practices, such as Mainardes and Marcondes (2009), Barbosa (2010), Campos and Barbosa (2015), Rocha, Lessa and Buss-Simão (2016), among others, in addition to normative and mandatory documents on early childhood education.
Considering that the BNCC constitutes an educational public policy currently in the process of being implemented across various levels (federal, state, and municipal), this research seeks to elucidate: how can the Pedagogy of Childhood(s) contribute to the implementation of the National Common Curricular Base in Early Childhood Education settings in the municipality of Vacaria (RS)?
The Pedagogy of Childhood(s) emerges as a possibility for questioning the reproduction of reductionist and conservative educational practices in education/teaching, knowledge production/transmission, collective life/classroom, and children/students. Thus, it can help us understand how the BNCC has been proposed and/or implemented in early childhood education institutions in the municipality of Vacaria (RS) and what conceptions of education are circumscribed in educational discourses and practices.
In this context of BNCC implementation for Early Childhood Education, it is essential to remain attentive to its dynamics, underlying interests, and developments. This is a topic of significant historical, political, and cultural relevance, which requires a critical and reflective perspective regarding its purposes in education – particularly those aimed at early childhood.
The methodology used consisted of a qualitative approach, through documentary research and focused interviews, which, according to Flick (2009), emerged in the 1940s with the purpose of planning and conducting interviews in qualitative research and giving the interviewee as much space as possible to express their opinions. Using this method, it is possible to study “[…] subjective points of view in different social groups”; research questions focus on “[…] the impact of concrete events or the subjective manipulation of the conditions of the person’s activities” (Flick, 2009, p. 148).
The research also used Mayring’s qualitative content analysis methodology (apud Flick, 2009), considering that this research technique allows for an objective, systematic, and qualitative description of the content collected in the search, facilitating its interpretation.
The focused interview involved a total of fifteen professionals from the municipal education network, including: two professionals responsible for the Early Childhood Education sector of the Municipal Department of Education; the Regional Coordinator of the BNCC of the Municipal Department of Education; the President of the Municipal Council of Education; the Municipal Secretary of Education; five managers of Early Childhood Education schools in Vacaria; and five teachers who work with children daily in the institution. The aim was to understand how the National Common Core Curriculum was developed and implemented in the municipal early childhood education network in the municipality, as well as to identify the challenges and possibilities for its effective implementation in everyday educational practice.
The analysis and discussion of the empirical research data cover three fundamental aspects, namely: a) contributions of the BNCC to the daily routine of early childhood education institutions; b) how the BNCC is being discussed at the municipal level; and, finally, c) the challenges and possibilities of the BNCC in the daily routine of early childhood education institutions.
This article is divided into four sections, the first of which presents the theoretical relevance, methodology, and general data of the research. The second section addresses childhood(s) and childhood education through their contributions to child development. The third section, in turn, presents the historical foundations of the BNCC for Early Childhood Education. Finally, the fourth and last section consists of an analysis of the implementation of the BNCC in early childhood education institutions in the municipality of Vacaria, in southern Brazil, based on its challenges and possibilities.
Childhood(s) and Childhood Education
The concept of childhood is linked to the most varied ways of understanding children, since they are different from one another and carry with them the marks of their subjectivities, interactions, and actions in the world, as they experience diverse contexts that constitute them as human beings, signaling a peculiar way of being and existing in the world.
The term “Childhood Education” or “Early Childhood Education” was created to investigate the educational processes involving childhood. Furthermore, it critically challenges Child Pedagogies, rooted in conservative/traditional or liberal educational theories of the 20th century, which conceive children as natural beings who depend on the intervention of teachers to develop spontaneously.
Thus, Early Childhood Education emerges in contemporary times as a possibility of perceiving children as historical, social, political, and cultural beings, who are shaped by their actions and interactions with objects, other children, and adults in the different educational, social, and cultural spaces in which they participate.
Furthermore, according to Barbosa (2010), Childhood Education emerges as a possibility to question the reproduction of reductionist and conservative educational practices in education/teaching, knowledge production/transmission, collective life/classroom, and children/students.
According to Barbosa (2010), Childhood Education is characterized by a set of principles and guidelines for pedagogical action that focus on children and the various conceptions of childhood in diverse educational spaces.
Early childhood education understands children as subjects with rights, which requires the proposal of pedagogical guidelines that enable them to experience childhood through educational projects aimed at building democracy, diversity, and social practice, with an emphasis on social relations between children, their families, and teachers.
In this sense, Early Childhood Education is based on the idea that all learning results from a shared social relationship. Therefore, the pedagogical proposal focuses on interactions, games, playfulness, and languages linked to knowledge of the arts, culture, science, and technology.
According to Barbosa (2010), Childhood Education considers that any educational actions require analysis of children and the sociocultural contexts that legitimize their childhood and recognize children as human beings who are capable of acting socially and who bring with them their life stories. Beings with the potential to establish diverse relationships, who build and produce culture based on their relationships with others, while being influenced by various other cultures existing in society.
From another perspective, Rocha, Lessa, and Buss-Simão (2016) explain that Early Childhood Education has been the subject of much attention due to advances in research in the field of childhood and the consequent increase in educational institutions focused on young children. Based on research conducted at the Center for Studies and Research on Early Childhood Education (Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisa da Educação na Pequena Infância, NUPEIN), the authors seek to investigate the educational processes that children experience and through which they develop.
According to Formosinho (2007, p. 13), “[…] Early Childhood Education has a rich and diverse heritage of thinking about children as participants rather than beings waiting to participate.” On the other hand, there is an educational context in which the gap between pedagogical proposals and reality has become normalized, with the persistence of a pedagogical model that ignores children’s rights to be seen as competent and to have earned their place in society.
Faced with this challenge, Formosinho (2007, p. 14) suggests that we develop a transformative pedagogy, “[…] that credits children with rights, understands their competence, and listens to their voices to transform pedagogical action into a shared activity.” Furthermore, the author points out that the studies of educators Froebel, John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Freinet, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, and Malaguzzi can greatly contribute to this new conception of children.
Early childhood education is based on opportunities for interaction geared toward collaborative projects in a context that requires participation. Thus, subject and context are integrated within the scope of culture, which makes the mediation of activities in early childhood education institutions a priority issue.
Following these reflections on childhood education, in the next section, we will analyze the process of developing and implementing the National Common Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education, in an attempt to better understand its structure, foundations, and purposes.
The National Common Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education
The process of developing and implementing the BNCC is a public policy initiative and, as such, its practical translation did not occur simply or peacefully. On the contrary, it gave rise to controversies, tensions, debates, differing stances, research, hearings, meetings, seminars, and academic production, particularly from scientific communities and education professionals involved in the process.
In this way, we agree with some of Stephen J. Ball’s ideas regarding public policy, when he states:
I don’t believe that policies are implemented, as this suggests a linear process by which they move directly toward practice. This is a careless and thoughtless use of the verb. The process of translating policies into practice is extremely complex; it involves switching between different modes (Ball apudMainardes; Marcondes, 2009, p. 305).
Ball is a leading author on public policy. In an interview conducted by Mainardes and Marcondes (2009), he clarifies that the process of translating public policies into practices involves a certain complexity, as it is an alternation between modalities. This means that, initially, policies are written by someone, while the practicality of the policy requires action. Thus, those who implement written policies must make a great effort to combine these two modalities, which are the written word and actionable measures, something that is rather complicated to achieve.
For Stephen Ball, the process of translating policies involves action by individuals to implement policy in practice. Thus, teachers are fundamental in the process of translating educational policies.
Amidst the debates surrounding the BNCC, many education researchers have raised important considerations that will help us broaden our understanding of the concepts expressed in the BNCC. Similarly, we also seek to analyze it from the perspective of a set of interests that ultimately reconfigure and problematize the social, political, cultural, and educational issues that permeate our educational institutions and the power relations that occur in these spaces.
Since the Federal Constitution of 1988, in its Article 205, education has been recognized as a fundamental right, with the duty to guarantee this right shared between the State, the family, and society, “[…] with a view to the full development of the individual, their preparation for the exercise of citizenship, and their qualification for work” (Brasil, 1988). Furthermore, in Article 210, the Constitution establishes the need to “[…] establish minimum content for elementary education, to ensure a common basic education and respect for national and regional cultural and artistic values” (Brasil, 1988).
Along the same lines, the BNCC should be a basic document, proactive and concise, covering the rights and learning and development goals of children, young people, and adults, with states and municipalities responsible for developing the diverse aspects (unifying the universal and the local) of their curricula, taking into account cultural, artistic, regional, and local diversity. However, the document has become broad, extensive, and complex.
Following its approval in 2017, the BNCC is a regulatory and mandatory document that seeks to define the set of essential learning outcomes that all children and young people must develop throughout the stages and modalities of Basic Education. It therefore indicates the knowledge and skills that all students are expected to develop during their schooling, with a focus on skills development.
In this sense, the BNCC has given rise to many differences and contradictions, especially during its development, because it presents different pedagogical and ideological concepts at each stage of basic education. It thus became a document that was sometimes contradictory in its understanding of children and their developmental processes throughout their educational journey.
Concerning Early Childhood Education, the document is organized differently from the structure of the other stages of Basic Education, as this stage is systematized based on the concept of fields of experience, in which learning rights are realized. The fields of experience focus on interactions and play, which give rise to observations, questions, investigations, and other actions by children, based on hypotheses put forward by teachers.
Thus, in early childhood education, centrality is expressed in children’s experiences, their rights to learning and development, and learning objectives, with a conception of learning, curriculum, and children that differs from that which guides elementary education.
In both elementary and high school, it is evident that the focus is on knowledge and skill development, with proposals often reducing to a list of skills and content.
The BNCC, in its entirety, defines ten general competencies and thus assumes that education should affirm values and encourage actions that contribute to the transformation of society, making it more humane, socially just, and also focused on the preservation of nature. Through these skills, children are expected to ensure a comprehensive human education aimed at building a fair, democratic, and inclusive society.
In this sense, for knowledge appropriation to be effective in everyday early childhood education practices, six learning and development rights must be ensured so that children can learn and develop, namely: living together, playing, participating, exploring, expressing themselves, and getting to know themselves.
In addition to learning and development rights, the BNCC for Early Childhood Education establishes five fields of experience in which children can learn and develop, namely: The self, the other, and us; Body, gestures, and movements; Traits, sounds, colors, and shapes; Orality and writing; and Spaces, times, quantities, relationships, and transformations. The document also provides guidelines and definitions by age group. It seeks to organize them between daycare and preschool, emphasizing the fact that the various areas of knowledge cut across all fields of experience in early childhood education.
The definition and naming of the fields of experience are also based on the provisions of the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009) regarding the fundamental knowledge and skills to be provided to children and associated with their experiences.
Therefore, given the above, it is possible to understand that the BNCC is a complex educational policy that raises many questions and directions, as it is linked to a historical, political, social, and cultural context that is not impartial and reinforces the conception of society, childhood, and education that we aim to build.
Finally, in the fourth and last section, we will analyze the implementation of the BNCC in early childhood education institutions in a municipality in southern Brazil, based on its challenges and possibilities, explaining the theoretical and methodological approaches of the research.
Early Childhood Education and the implementation of the BNCC in early childhood education institutions in the municipality of Vacaria (RS)
We will present below some of the challenges and possibilities for the implementation of the BNCC in early childhood education institutions in the municipality of Vacaria (RS), explaining the theoretical and methodological approaches of the research and the process of constructing and implementing the BNCC at the municipal level, based on a qualitative analysis.
The implementation of the BNCC presents both challenges and possibilities in terms of its organization and application in early childhood education institutions. To address these, a set of proactive measures is required to ensure that professionals acquire new knowledge about children and their childhood, as well as studies on the pedagogy of Childhood (s). These concepts guide pedagogical practice in Early Childhood Education, particularly those introduced by the BNCC.
In this sense, to successfully implement the BNCC in early childhood education institutions, a set of coordinated actions is necessary. Among them, proposals aimed at training professionals working in this stage are initially envisaged. This requires intersectoral and integrative public policies, funding for education, collectivity, and commitment from all those involved, based on a training process involving Early Childhood Education, child development, and understanding of the principles that guide the BNCC, to ensure pedagogical practices aimed at the integral development of children and their protagonism in Early Childhood Education spaces.
The research on the Pedagogy of Childhood(s) and the National Common Core Curriculum in the municipality of Vacaria, conducted since 2018, based on an intense process of investigation and concern, prompted us to think about the public education policies that have been discussed and implemented at the federal, state, and municipal levels, specifically about the BNCC in early childhood education.
The documentary research involved the collection and analysis of normative documents, such as the Law on Guidelines and Bases for National Education (Law No. 9,394, 1996), the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009), the National Common Core Curriculum (2017), and the National Education Plan (Law No. 13,005, 2014-2024), among others.
To conduct the focused interview, the participation and consent of the subjects involved in the research were required, totaling fifteen professionals. To keep their identities confidential, the subjects were described and identified by code names of cities, which are as follows: Athens, Florence, Lisbon, Madrid, Munich, Beijing, Valencia, Venice, Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London.
In addition to the code names for cities, the participants in the study were also identified by the acronyms CP (Pedagogical Coordinator), GL (Local Manager), and PEI (Early Childhood Education Teacher), to give greater visibility to their professional roles and their place of speech during the data analysis.
At this point, it is important to emphasize that the research participants were selected considering the diversity of their professional experience in the field of Early Childhood Education, so that local managers, pedagogical coordinators, and Early Childhood Education teachers working in both daycare centers and preschools participated. Local managers were chosen based on the different geographical locations of their educational institutions, which are located in different neighborhoods of the municipality surveyed, with diverse historical, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts.
This qualitative study employs documentary research and focused interviews, supplemented by technological resources, including the Google Meet application. The study was necessitated by the social context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged during the empirical research process and necessitated social distancing as a preventive measure.
The research also used Mayring’s qualitative content analysis methodology (apudFlick, 2009), considering that this research technique allows for an objective, systematic, and qualitative description of the content collected in the search, facilitating its interpretation.
To understand the narratives of the research participants (managers interviewed, teachers who work with children, Early Childhood Education coordinators, and the President of the Municipal Education Council), it is necessary to broaden our perspective and our ability to reflect on our social, historical, political, cultural, and educational context, as well as to remember that these individuals have unique life stories and experiences.
During our research, we observed that the BNCC document for Early Childhood Education aims to guarantee children’s rights to learning and development through fields of experience and learning objectives, which gave rise to many disagreements and contradictions during its development.
In this sense, for many researchers in Early Childhood Education, there were significant losses during the process of drafting the document. On the other hand, it was possible to promote a much broader discussion on the specificity of Early Childhood Education and highlight some important concepts for this stage (Traversini; Fochi, 2020).
Based on this brief contextualization, when asked about the contributions of the BNCC to the daily routine of early childhood education institutions, the professionals participating in the study highlighted some significant changes in the institutions following studies involving the BNCC. This fact demonstrates that schools are rethinking their educational practices, seeking to break away from a scholastic and welfare-based approach, as well as being attentive to what is being proposed in the document.
In this perspective, Traversini and Fochi (2020, n.p.) state the following about the BNCC: “[…] calls on us to pay attention to the place where children produce meaning; we need to appropriate the knowledge to read and interpret the Base, during formal schooling.”
To illustrate this, Madrid - GL (2020) highlights that the BNCC can assist teachers in their planning through the set of experiences that the document will provide, “[…] enabling children to get to know themselves, interact, express themselves, and live together; this is where the Base contributes; it is up to teachers to have this vision and, through their planning, ensure that all these rights are fulfilled.”
From the same point of view, Rocha, Lessa, and Buss-Simão (2016) emphasize the importance of theory combined with pedagogical practice for the consolidation of a Pedagogy of Childhood, that is, one that recognizes children as social subjects. Thus, “[…] practice is the result of critical reflection on itself, shaping educational action geared toward children, their childhood, and their social contexts” (Rocha; Lessa; Buss-Simão, 2016, p. 36).
In Valencia-CP’s conception (2020), the BNCC is seen as a normative document that must be followed by everyone, as “[…] it is a document that will bring equity, balance, and learning for all with equality, regardless of social factors or various other factors, so that everyone has the same right to learn and with equity.”
In turn, Florença - GL (2020) explains that the BNCC enables “[…] a change in the concept of daycare about welfare,” which has changed significantly over the years. Thus, the document suggests “[…] valuing children and childhood” and focuses on “training teachers to seek new paths and new ways of organizing pedagogical work” (Florença - GL, 2020).
Similarly, Lisbon - CP (2020) adds that the BNCC highlights “[…] the culture and diversity” that we have, reinforcing the importance of children’s local, regional, and territorial customs based on their family life, origin, experience, history, culture, and nationality. Thus, “[…] when we talk about culture, it is not just about working with Gaucho culture, but rather working with this family issue that exists in children’s culture” (Lisboa - CP, 2020).
From another perspective, for Munich - GL (2020), the BNCC “[…] is heavily criticized in some respects, but the document presents a detailed structure that consolidates what other laws and studies have been saying.” Meanwhile, for Viena - GL (2020), the greatest contribution of the BNCC is the need for the “[…] fundamentals contained in the document to be implemented in practice” and not just praised on paper.
Another aspect of the empirical research involves understanding how the BNCC is discussed in early childhood education institutions within the surveyed municipality. Based on the participants’ accounts, it is clear that education professionals were heavily involved in the training, including teachers, management, teaching staff, assistants, employees, and the Municipal Department of Education.
The management teams argued that during 2019, various educational training courses were provided through the Department of Education by a team of local trainers. Initially, these meetings were held with the management and supervisory teams of each institution, who were responsible for replicating the studies carried out with their school colleagues throughout the project.
Given this context, it is important to reflect on the training processes carried out in a staggered manner, that is, what are the benefits and impacts brought about by the continuing education practices adopted through the replication of the topics studied? These issues need to be discussed and evaluated by professionals involved in education to ascertain their functionality and the scope of the proposed objectives.
According to the narratives obtained, three of the fifteen interviewees emphasize that these discussions and training moments contributed to a better understanding of the concepts of childhood, the spaces and times of early childhood education, children’s rights, fields of experience, pedagogical intentionality, children’s daily lives, and, above all, the qualification of practices evidenced in the care of children, involving not only the BNCC but also the Gaucho Curriculum Reference (RCG).
From another perspective, two of the teachers participating in the research reported that discussions in the institution’s daily routine helped them understand children’s learning and development rights, as experienced through fields of experience. However, they draw attention to the need for further study and training on the subject for all early childhood education professionals.
According to data provided by the Municipal Education Secretariat (SMED), the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009) were already being used and studied before the BNCC, serving as a basis for the organization of Political-Pedagogical Projects and Regulations. Similarly, they guided children’s development based on concepts of childhood, the organization of time, space, and materials, early childhood education practices, and the assessment of children in educational institutions.
We can also see in the Copenhagen PEI (2020) reports that many of the difficulties in implementing the BNCC lie in the theoretical field, that is, in how to record the organization and planning of activities, which can generate insecurity, fear, and aversion to the document. There is therefore a need for further discussion on how to integrate theory with practice. Meanwhile, according to London - PEI (2020), the training included studies of the BNCC and RCG, and all teachers were able to participate in this process.
When addressing another topic, regarding the challenges and possibilities of the BNCC in the daily routine of early childhood education institutions, some professionals participating in the research highlighted the following challenges:
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“It will be a long, difficult road, considering that some teachers, assistants, and parents do not recognize the child as a present being, in addition to rejecting the new way of perceiving education” (Copenhagen - PEI, 2020);
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“The challenge is to think about free play, nature. We need to change the training programs. Everyone should participate in these changes in play and nature. Some people don’t want to change, others need time to see things differently” (Berlin - PEI, 2020);
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The concern raised by Vienna - GL (2020) is linked to the idea that the document must be feasible in practice, otherwise it will be meaningless: “It’s no use just reading and keeping it on paper. When teachers can work with the children, we will see results” (Viena - GL, 2020).
To understand the above narratives, we draw on the work of Campos and Barbosa (2015), , who emphasize that to discuss the BNCC in early childhood education, it is necessary to consider the entire historical trajectory of this stage of schooling, as well as the Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009), this public policy being a major challenge but a necessary task to guarantee the rights of Brazilian children. They also explain that despite advances in early childhood education at both the theoretical and organizational levels, there are many challenges to its implementation in practice.
Novais and Nunes (2018) also alert us to the fact that the BNCC, in addition to being an educational policy, is, above all, a social policy that prescribes other demands and involves the space experienced by children. Thus, they encourage us to think about the power of teaching when they state that “[…] no educational reform is capable of breaking with the dialectic present in the educational practice of teaching children or at any other levels or in any other forms of education” (Novais; Nunes, 2018, p. 1083).
On the other hand, we can highlight some of the possibilities that the document may offer in the narratives of the research participants:
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“I see the Base in a very clear way. She is a mentor who brought a unified perspective, along with guidance on age groups. It emerged to provide a foundation based on reality. I interpret it as a good way forward” (Paris - PEI, 2020);
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“It came to give a name to what was already being done, to guide the work of teachers. The rights to live, play, and explore have always been present in early childhood education and go hand in hand. He came to put the teacher in his place” (Amsterdam - PEI, 2020);
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“Very well planned and thought out, that’s what we experience in our practice, getting good results from our work with all the children. We’re going to let children be children, in their way. When we restrict children, they feel stressed and no longer trust us. When children are given a voice, they feel more welcome and confident and will enjoy coming to school” (Berlin - PEI, 2020);
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“She is complex and, at the same time, objective. The fields cover many things and, at the same time, are very specific because they are tailored to that particular class. It focuses on the experience and has menus, which is the main thing” (London - PEI, 2020);
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“The contribution is the teacher’s thinking in planning, the experiences they will offer, having a basis from which to draw on to address the skills, objectives, and fields of experience. The curriculum exists, but it is the way the teacher develops it that will determine whether the Base is really being implemented and whether the teacher gives children the opportunity to get to know themselves, interact, and express themselves” (Madrid - GL, 2020);
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“The Base comes in a more detailed, more explained form. I realized that it consolidates what other laws and studies have already been saying” (Munich - GL, 2020);
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“He came to help. It is a guideline, a foundation that values children, childhood, planning, and our training to seek new paths in the organization of pedagogical work” (Florença - GL, 2020);
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“It enables us to work with the culture and diversity we have. Each school has a different perspective, and children have their own experiences within their families. When we talk about culture, we don’t mean simply working with the culture of Rio Grande do Sul, but working with this family issue that is part of the child’s culture” (Lisbon - CP, 2020);
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“It is a very rich document, a tool that has come to provide a foundation for education” (Venice - CP, 2020).
Given these narratives, we can see the complexity involved in implementing the BNCC in practice, combined with theory, which requires a collective effort both at the level of public policy management and in the curriculum taught in educational institutions.
In this sense, early childhood teachers undertake a crucial role in designing and implementing pedagogy that provides children with enriching experiences in early childhood education, tailored to their backgrounds, experiences, and needs, thereby enabling them to exercise their rights in practice.
From this perspective, teachers are considered subjects of this process, those who make choices, mobilize thought, and possess knowledge and expertise. Thus, their role is not limited to implementing public policy, but involves rethinking their daily routine and teaching practices based on the experiences they have gained throughout their teaching career.
Final thoughts
In this research, we have taken a long journey in an attempt to reflect on and analyze the contributions of Early Childhood Education to the implementation of a national public policy entitled Base Nacional Comum Curricular (National Common Core Curriculum), specifically aimed at Early Childhood Education in a municipality in southern Brazil.
Throughout 2018, in the municipality surveyed, there were many discussions about the BNCC, following a long history of studies involving the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009). However, little was heard about the term Pedagogy of Childhood as a way of understanding children and their cultures, conceiving them as human beings capable of social action, who carry their life stories with them and construct themselves based on their relationships and interactions with other children and adults.
In this sense, the research was gradually developed with the contribution of authors who provided theoretical support for the work carried out and with the participation of teachers, managers, and coordinators of Early Childhood Education, who enriched the research with their narratives and life experiences through their professional work.
To address the research problem, it is essential to reflect on Childhood Education and the implementation of the National Common Core Curriculum in early childhood education institutions within the surveyed municipality.
Thus, Early Childhood Education and the implementation of the National Common Core Curriculum point to challenges and possibilities regarding their organization and implementation in Early Childhood Education institutions. This will require action on the part of the individual, as well as a set of proactive measures to ensure that early childhood education professionals acquire new knowledge about children and childhood, studies on the concepts that guide pedagogical practice in early childhood education and, specifically, on the concepts brought about by the BNCC, which permeate public policy management, the professional training of those involved, and the pedagogical choices of teachers.
As we delve deeper into the theoretical concepts surrounding Early Childhood Education, we are challenged to think about children as subjects of rights and as human beings capable of social action, who bring with them their own life stories. Furthermore, they are beings capable of establishing diverse relationships, which build and produce culture based on the relationships they establish with others, while being influenced by various other cultures existing in society.
From this perspective, the Pedagogy of Childhood(s) takes shape in contemporary times through a critical, historical, political, sociological, and anthropological view of the concepts of child and childhood – concepts that urgently require discussion and analysis in the current context. It thus differentiates itself from child-centered pedagogies that originated with the New School movement. In this way, it can serve as a proposal for new pedagogical practices based on understanding children as subjects of rights, as human beings capable of acting socially, with the possibility of establishing diverse relationships and bringing with them their life stories and cultures.
Thus, theoretical and empirical analyses have shown that early childhood education professionals need to see in childhood pedagogy the possibilities for building a more just and humane society for all and to value the diverse cultures of childhood, conceiving children as protagonists and agents of their history and culture.
In this sense, Early Childhood Education can contribute to proposing new perspectives involving children and their childhood, considering that this approach is based on the following concepts:
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It understands children as subjects of rights, which requires the proposal of pedagogical guidelines that enable children to experience childhood through educational projects aimed at building democracy, diversity, and social practice, with an emphasis on social relations between children, their families, and teachers.
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It is based on the idea that all learning results from a shared social relationship. In this sense, its pedagogical proposal involves interactions, games, playfulness, and languages linked to knowledge of the arts, culture, science, and technology.
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It considers that any educational actions require analysis of children and the sociocultural contexts that legitimize their childhood, and recognizes children as human beings capable of acting socially, who bring with them their life stories; beings with the potential to establish diverse relationships, who construct and produce culture based on their relationships with others, while being influenced by various other cultures existing in society.
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It indicates that it is possible to transform early childhood education institutions into places for children by recognizing their sociocultural context, enabling the intertwining of knowledge, promoting a place where children can speak, express themselves, and communicate through various languages in their everyday spaces, so that they are seen, heard, and considered in the planning and organization of the educational routine.
For the reasons outlined above, it is possible to see a close relationship between the Pedagogy of Childhood Education and the proposals of the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (2009), based on concepts involving the definitions of child, Early Childhood Education, curriculum, and pedagogical proposals, which also served as support and foundation for the construction and proposal of the National Common Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education.
The BNCC document, approved in 2017, proposes significant changes to the curriculum of educational institutions, with a more proactive approach in early childhood education, to ensure children’s rights to learning and development. This occurs through its structural axes, which involve interactions and play, as well as fields of experience and learning objectives, through which children can learn and develop.
In this regard, in early childhood education, centrality is expressed in children’s experiences, learning and development rights, and learning objectives, with a different conception of learning, curriculum, and children than in elementary school.
However, for this to occur, the curriculum must be understood as a set of experiences planned and experienced by children, in line with their needs, interests, and sociocultural contexts. Thus, there is a specific concept of learning, curriculum, and childhood, based on sensitive listening, respect for children’s uniqueness, and appreciation of multiple childhood languages.
Similarly, the research revealed that implementing the BNCC in the surveyed municipal institutions presents numerous challenges and opportunities, particularly in early childhood education.
In this context, it is essential to have a set of coordinated actions and proposals aimed at training professionals working in early childhood education institutions, which requires integrated intersectoral public policies, funding for education, collective action, and commitment from all those involved. This should occur through a formative process involving children and an understanding of the pedagogical foundations that guide the BNCC, to ensure pedagogical practices focused on the integral development of children and their protagonism in Early Childhood Education spaces.
Furthermore, it is necessary to rethink the daily routine of Early Childhood Education, the services offered, and the specific training of professionals working in these spaces, as well as the ramifications of public policies, to provide quality education in line with the concepts of Early Childhood Education so that all children can enjoy their rights.
In summary, it is essential to analyze the context in which we are situated, to follow the ongoing discussions surrounding the field of childhood, and to equip ourselves with knowledge and training on child development to construct new ways of thinking. We must remain attentive and vigilant to social and governmental movements, to contribute to the realization of children’s rights by enabling them to experience meaningful, enriching situations that support the development of childhood.
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» https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB8CQPr8jf8
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- Data Availability: The data are available at: https://data.scielo.org/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.48331/SCIELODATA.76A8EE&version=DRAFT
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-This is an excerpt from a master’s thesis entitled A Pedagogia da(s) Infância(s) e a Base Nacional Comum Curricular no município de Vacaria/RS: desafios e possibilidades para a educação infantil, defended in 2020 at the Universidade do Planalto Catarinense (UNIPLAC).
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Assistant editor:
Prof. Dr. Renata Marcilio Candido
- Data Availability: The data are available at: https://data.scielo.org/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.48331/SCIELODATA.76A8EE&version=DRAFT
