Crianças e infâncias em ação no Espaço de Desenvolvimento Infantil no Município do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This research emerges from the desire to comprehend the aesthetic, ethical, and political forms that children from 0 to 3 years old activate in their relationships and interactions with their peers and adults in an Early Childhood Development Space. The research was carried out through participant observation, inspired by ethnography and photography techniques, in the weekly monitoring of a group of 2 and 3-year-old children during the first semester of 2022, in an Early Childhood Development Space in the Western Zone of Rio de Janeiro, identified in the research as EDI Pedra da Panela, belonging to the 7th Regional Education Coordination. This development space is situated in a unique region of the city, and therefore, its territorial peculiarity is essential to understand the dynamics of the social lives of the children residing in the area and attending this institutional educational space. Furthermore, the Development space is a privileged locus for the research, as it represents the achievement of the right to education for a large number of children in Rio de Janeiro. Given the age range of the observed children, the concept of language was used broadly, encompassing different forms of communication and expression (gestures, babbling, gazes, and speech). For data analysis, the ethical, political, and aesthetic principles presented by the National Curricular Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (BRAZIL, 2010) were considered. Social studies of childhood and child studies were employed to affirm children as subjects with rights and integral parts of society. They also provided a repertoire for understanding the generational aspects involving children and their childhoods, and the consequent unequal place they occupy in society. A brief history of children's rights and municipal policies for the care of young children was presented. In the collected field data, the analyzed categories were: routine, social relationships, and bodies. From these categories, it was established that children are active beings and act politically in their environments, despite their minority position and subaltern status in the social structure. Despite the absence of a participation policy, their actions in routines, social relationships, and bodily performativity have the capacity to modify the instituting orders.