Práxis e trabalho docente: um estudo crítico dos documentos normativos da Educação Infantil do município de Fortaleza

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the concepts of work, praxis, and teaching activity (work), understanding them as fundamental for reflecting on human development and pedagogical practice. Work is conceived in its ontological dimension, as a vital human activity and a means of producing existence; praxis is understood as conscious and transformative action that goes beyond mere reproduction, becoming a central category for the awakening of pedagogical practice; and teaching activity (work) is analyzed as a specific professional practice, linked both to social determinations and to the possibilities of emancipation within the educational field. The central issue of this research is guided by the following question: how is teaching work in early childhood education in the municipality of Fortaleza conceived and oriented by official documents, and how do these documents articulate the categories of work and praxis in the daily lives of teachers? The general objective is to analyze the documents that guide teaching work, identifying the categories of work and praxis in order to discuss how these concepts are presented in such guidelines. The specific objectives are to understand the category of work, particularly alienated work in capitalist society; to analyze the meaning of teaching work; and to investigate the sense of praxis as a category of analysis in its relationship with teaching work. This research is characterized as bibliographic, theoretical, and documentary, since it involves a review of the literature on the subject and the analysis of works dedicated to the categories of praxis, work, teaching work, and human formation. The theoretical foundation is based on authors such as Marx (1844), Engels (1816), Kosik (1995), Sousa Jr. (2015, 2010, 2021), Saviani (2007), Oliveira (2008), Oliveira and Nunes (2017), Basso (1998), among others. From the perspective of dialectical materialism, this study seeks to understand reality in order to transform it, analyzing the official guiding documents prepared by the Municipal Department of Education of Fortaleza for pedagogical practices in early childhood education. Therefore, this research intends to raise reflections and questions about teaching work, aiming at a praxis that goes beyond mere conformity, contributing to the real transformation of the experienced reality, which may be fostered by teachers’ continuing education, thus generating a reflective praxis capable of confronting alienated practice.