Representações sociais de educadoras de creche a respeito do cuidado em saúde de crianças até cinco anos de idade

Abstract

One goal of this research was to know what are the social representations of care for day nursery educators and its relation with below five years old children's health. Another goal was to analyze what are the social representations of care for pedagogy students. For them the experience on educating young children and the specific studies carried for children's education were taken into account as variables.It was done two studies which were oriented by the Social Representations Theory. Study 1 used the Ethnographic Approach and the Action Research with a group of 16 educators in a day nursery of Belo Horizonte. The informations were get on written statements, interviews and workshops. Study 2 was based on the Structural Approach with investigation of the core and peripheral elements from socialrepresentations of 240 pedagogy students, using a questionnaire. The software Ensemble de Programmes Permettant lAnalyses des Évocations (EVOC) was utilized to organize the gathered data. This organization was carried first with all participants together and then with smaller groups determined by the variables experience and studies in children's education. In both studies the results showed predominance of traditional and welfarist conceptions about children's care. An emphasis on basic aids as feeding, hygiene and attention could be observed.Another topic pointed out was love, seen as a protection factor for the child. The context influence on the practices determination also showed up. It seems that health is not seen as part of the educational process but as parents responsibility. The found social representations anchor actions that do not consider that cognitive and social aspects are related to health. They also indicate that these actions lack support of theoretical and conceptual thinking. The social representations identified inall groups seemed to be similar, meanwhile some changes could be observed in the structures of the children´s health care. What seems to make the diference was the experience and studies in children´s education. It´s identified that the studies alied to the practice turn down the health care into a conception much more technical than humane. The topic Health seems not to be part of the thoughts and academicformation of pedagogy students. The results from the workshops indicated that they contributed to an exchange of experiences, to the group relationship and to the action alternatives facing daily problems. Hence, it showed up to be a very good learning method, that estimulate the reflection, the promotion of changes and still has the possibility of large application.