Com a voz as crianças: um estudo sobre as representações de escola na educação infantil

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Bethania de Assis
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3370
• topic: Representação de escola; Conhecimento social; Pesquisa com crianças; Modelo clínico piagetiano; Representation of school; Social Knowledge; Research with children; Piagetian clinical method; CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::ECONOMIA DOMESTICA

The growing interest for social knowledge studies has generated important investigations on the representations on different aspects of society. This study is aimed at the interest to know how children construct their representations of the social institution they attend at an earlier age and for increasingly longer hours the school and the recognition that they are capable of expressing their ideas and discuss their reality. The following questions were proposed: what representations do 5- and 6-yearold children who attend a traditional school environment and a constructivist school environment have about school? The hypotheses guiding this study were that the children s conceptions about their school were based on elements that can be directly observed within the school context, and that the representations they build about the school are influenced by their school environment; thus, traditional school and constructivist school children have differentiated representations. Our objective was to learn about the representations of 5-to 6- year old children studying in a traditional school environment and in a constructivist school environment in Viçosa, MG. A Piagetian clinical method was applied, using as a collection tool a clinical interview, consisting of basic and complementary questions and the possibility of concrete material. The sample was constituted of thirty-eight 5-to-6-year old children, registered in two pre-school classes: one considered to offer a constructivist environment, and the other to offer a traditional environment. The qualitative data analysis of the interview shows how the children have a peculiar way of constructing their ideas on social reality, more specifically, on their school s reality. The way the children from both school environments express their ideas about the school reflect the way they understand it, conceptualize it, and characterize it. The children s ideas are based, practically, on what the school offers, how they feel about the school, and what they do at school. Therefore, their explanations are based on the most visible aspects, most directly observable and familiar. Although similarities have been found in the form school is represented, some differences could be verified regarding the content of the answers and those aspects which were most emphasized by the children from both school environments. The main difference in the children s representations was the emphasis given by the traditional school children to the teaching-learning process, while the constructivist school children stressed playing and playing activities. One must emphasize the importance children from both school environments gave to open-air spaces and playgrounds, indicating the need children have to experience play at school. This study covers only a fraction of a larger reality ; thus, further studies are needed to get a deeper insight on what children think , say, and feel about their school, considering their voices as valid contributions to further reflection and action toward the necessary changes.