Políticas Públicas de Educação Infantil: Creches municipais da cidade de Manaus

Abstract

This thesis sought to investigate the public policies regarding nursery school education (PPNSE), in the municipal education network of the city of Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. It analysed the production process of policies, their influences, and their legal and historical aspects, in particular for children from 0 to 3 years. The central issues were i) How does the educational service provided to children from 0 to 3 years occur in the municipal public education network? ii) How did the expansion of the public education network for children from 0 to 3 years occur? iii) What existed before the Expansion and Educational Improvement Project of the Municipal Public Network of Manaus (EEIPM)? and iv) How do the actors and political subjects narrate their participation in the construction of policies in the network of public nursery schools and describe the negotiations of the EEIP? The theoretical-analytical framework adopted was based on the Policy Cycle (BALL; BOWE, 1992; BALL, 1994). The methodological procedures chosen were those of documentary and bibliographic analysis; historical survey of the legal conditions of the PPNSE, in view of the legal principle: the child as a “subject of law”. In the Context of Influence, we compare the role of international bodies, the national and local legal and official regulations of the policies. As a Context of Text Production, we decided to debate the official, journalistic and photographic records that described the historical predecessors of the institutions for the care of small children in the city of Manaus, Brazil. The Municipal Department of Education in Manaus (SEMED) was understood as a Context of Practice since it is responsible for the current public policies regarding education for children in day care. The official data and indicators of the policy are subjected to analysis regarding numbers of vacancies and enrolments in public, private and council contracted nurseries for children from 0 to 3 years, based on funding indicators. In addition to the documental data, we conducted interviews with three social actors, with distinct contributions at different times of politics. Their narratives helped us to understand the historical omission of the Brazilian state and the city of Manaus towards young children, even when legal regulations (BRASIL, 1996) define this obligation as being that of the municipal government. In practice, what is a right, in the face of political omission, is nothing more than a permanent social demand. The thesis points out that there is still much to do to overcome the low educational service provided for children from 0 to 3 years in the municipal public network of the Amazonas state capital.