Expansão do atendimento em Educação Infantil em municípios do Estado do Rio de Janeiro: entre autonomia municipal e o papel indutor do governo federal

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to understand the connection between municipal autonomy and the inductive role of public policies aimed at expanding Early Childhood Education, contributing, in this way, to the analysis of educational policies. It was investigated how the coverage of the service has occurred since the 2010s and its ramifications in six municipalities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, developing a document analysis to identify the conflict between what is proposed for Brazilian federalism regarding the autonomy of municipalities, government guidelines aimed at the development of policies from induction and local implementation of Early Childhood Education. The researched Municipal Education Plans of the municipalities were analyzed in terms of their strategies for achieving Goal 1 of the National Education Plan, which establishes indicators aimed at universalizing service for children who are between 4 and 5 years old and at enlarging it by 50 % for children from 0 to 3 years old. The data and documents were interpreted in the light of the dialectical method: from the phenomenon of the expansion of Early Childhood Education, its determinations were identified, in view the Brazilian federative pact and the elements that contribute to the contradictions of public policies and social policies in a context of peripheral and dependent capitalism. Theoretical references were obtained in the formulations of Florestan Fernandes (1968; 1975; 2011), Elaine Behring (2021) and Eveline Algebaile (2009): dependent capitalism, ultra-neoliberalism and focus of social policies, expansion to less, among others, aiming to understand the role of the Brazilian national state. Regarding the study of the production process of the Early Childhood Education expansion policy, parameters were established for investigation and analysis: the political-administrative decentralization as a promoter of municipal autonomy, the legal provisions related to Early Childhood Education and the inductive policies for the expansion of service. When researching the extent to which inductive policies, at the federal level, have repercussions and/or are operationalized in some municipalities, it was identified a necessity to problematize the construction of the legal framework that establishes Early Childhood Education as universal, in contrast to the development options adopted across the country as determinants for choices regarding public policies. As one of the research findings, it was concluded that municipal autonomy is limited, since municipalities face several types of difficulties to implement public policies.