Ética e estética fotográfica com crianças pequenas: percursos de (trans)formação e práticas de uma professora da Educação Infantil

Abstract

The research investigated the photographic practice in the context of Early Childhood Education, motivated by reflections on its constitution as an ethical and aesthetic attitude of the teacher in relation to young children. The general objective was to analyze, based on the teaching experience itself, the specificities of photographic practice with young children in Early Childhood Education, highlighting the ethical and aesthetic aspects that traverse this performance. For this, three specific objectives were defined: 1) to identify the conceptions that guided my gaze and my performance in the photographic practices carried out with young children; 2) to specify the technical elements employed in the production of the photographic-pedagogical records; and 3) to characterize the factors that helped to qualify ethically and aesthetically my photographic practice in the contexts of daycare and preschool. The research was grounded especially in studies on photography (Benjamin, 1987; Sontag, 2004; Berger, 2017; Kossoy, 2016), on Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood Education (Tardos, 1997; Dahlberg, 2016; Forman; Fyfe, 2016) and on the theoretical articulations between ethics, aesthetics, and photographic practice with children, in the light of Freirean and Malaguzzian pedagogies (Freire, 2018; Hoyuelos, 2020, 2021; Vecchi, 2020). The investigation, anchored in the qualitative approach (Minayo, 2009) and in Photography-Based Educational Research (Viadel; Roldán, 2012), analyzed images from the photographic-pedagogical collection built throughout my teaching performance between the years of 2016 and 2024. The analysis revealed that photographic practice in Early Childhood Education involves a complex articulation between theoretical conceptions, ethical and aesthetic principles, technical knowledge, visual repertoire, and contextual conditions, which influence the representation of children and the quality of the images. It was also highlighted the importance of continuing education, cultural enrichment, critical reflection, and sharing among professionals for the development of a sensitive and conscious photographic gaze. The investigation further evidenced the gradual construction of ethical-aesthetic principles throughout the teaching trajectory. Finally, the research indicates paths for future studies that address initial and continuing teacher training, the political character of photographic practice, and children's protagonism in photography, enriching the debate on the role of the image in Early Childhood Education and strengthening more dialogic and meaningful pedagogical practices.