Docência e educação infantil: condições de trabalho e profissão docente

Abstract

This thesis is based upon the relational conception of teaching work, developed by Maurice Tardif and Claude Lessard, to analyze the professional situation, training and working conditions, of women who teach in Brazilian early childhood educational units. It is a document and bibliographical research, based upon normative framework of children'seducation in Brazil and studies produced by specialists in the field, such as Moyses Kuhlmann Jr., Tizuko Kishimoto, Sônia Kramer, Fúlvia Rosemberg, Maria Malta Campos and Lívia Fraga Vieira, in addition to empirical research that specifically addresses the issue of teacher work in daycare and pre-school and its circumstances of achievement. At first, the concept of teaching that guides this thesis will be presented. Next, a historical view on the offer of educational services for children in Brazil, from the beginning of the 20th century to 2015, will be also presented, based upon information from the Brazilian national legislation, officialdocuments and academic studies that refer to attendants, assistants, agents, educators, "recreadoras", crecheiras, monitoras, caretakers, baby nurses, "pajens" and teachers. Finally, we will examine: some of the main empirical research that relate education, working conditions to the teaching profession in early childhood education, selected by a survey ofpapers, theses and dissertations, published between 2007 and 2016; the microdata of the Official Census of Basic Education in Brazil; information from a set of more than three hundred municipal public calls for effective positions in early childhood education, published in 2015; and the Brazilian National Education Plan 2014-2024. In spite of the national and local changes that have been taking place, the efforts of municipal secretaries of education and the political mobilization of many workers, it is possible to observe that, in general, the professional situation of teaching in municipal public infant education is still far away from the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education, in terms of teacher education through attending early childhood education programs - called "Pedagogia" - at high school and higher education levels, as well as regards aspects that constitute their working conditions, labor situation, salaries, career, working hours and professional development. The examination of the selected statistical, document and bibliographical data evidences the existence of several positions within teaching not called "teachers", proper to the children's education, mainly of day care, such as "auxiliar" and others, that in several municipalities do not require the teacher education degree, are not in the teaching profession, have a longer workload, lower salaries and fewer opportunities for professional development.