Não! A auxiliar não é a professora: o papel das auxiliares da educação infantil no contexto de creche no município de Fortaleza

Abstract

The present study had as main objective to analyze the role of the Auxiliary of Infant Education in the context of Day Care in the city of Fortaleza. To support this study, the theoretical basis was based on different authors. Initially, when revisiting the History of Early Childhood Education, seeking to know the genesis of teaching for young children, the ideas of Vieira (1999, 1988), Arce (2001, 1997), Louro (1997), Rosemberg (1999, 2003a, 2003b, 2008), Kramer (2011a), Oliveira (2011a), Kuhlmann Jr. (2000, 2015), among others, revealing that the teaching activity in this sector was born from non-professional practice, marked by the assistance and the myth of the cream educator. Next, it was reflected on teaching for young children from the insertion of Early Childhood Education in the first stage of Basic Education, considering the paradigm of care, the specifics of small children and the teacher as a professional legitimized to work in this sector. For this, authors such as Oliveira-Formosinho (2002, 2011), Duarte (2011), Martins Filho (2013), Gonçalves (2014) and Schmitt (2014) have proved fundamental to weave such reflections. In addition, important national and municipal documents were considered, such as the Federal Constitution (BRASIL, 1988), the Law on Guidelines and Bases of National Education (BRASIL, 1996a), the Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (BRASIL, 2009a) and Municipal Resolution n. 002/2010 (FORTALEZA, 2010). In order to understand the focused phenomenon, a qualitative approach was chosen (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994), having as a methodological strategy the Case Study (LÜDKE; ANDRÉ, 1986; GIL, 2008). For data generation (GRAUE; WALSH, 2003), a questionnaire was applied with the Assistants, participant observation sections and individual interviews with the research subjects, teachers and coordinator of the research institution. Data analysis, among other aspects, revealed: 1) a heterogeneous professional group, with or without qualification for differentiated teaching and admission; 2) found that the Auxiliary’s daily work consists of care and education practices directed at children, but nonetheless, it is not perceived as a teaching practice, as a “pedagogic” action; 3) a perception of the Auxiliary as an important professional in the context of Early Childhood Education, due to the tasks they carry out, but, as supposed to be a developer of “care” and “teaching support” practices, being therefore a complementary function to the “pedagogical” of the teachers. Thus, the findings of this research present a Child Education undertaken by the “Curse of Sisyphus” (ROSEMBERG, 2003b) and which presents the urgency of reviewing the elements that constitute teaching for young children and point out the urgency of reviewing the elements that constitute teaching with young children, especially in the public network of the municipality surveyed.