“Vem, pessoal, descobrir novos horizontes”: as vivências de um currículo da educação infantil

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the lived experiences (perizhivanya) of a childcare school curriculum, focusing on the construction of meaning and the significance produced by infants and teachers for curricular practices. The research took place at a Municipal School of Early Childhood Education in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais state, Brazil), with video recordings, field notes, and interviews. The theoretical-methodological perspective is based on curricular theories, cultural-historical psychology, and ethnography in education. The concept of experience is understood as the person/environment unit while the curriculum is analyzed as a cultural practice. In this study it is argued that the experiences of children and teachers were marked by some tension expressed in the [autonomy/protection] unit. The aforementioned unit constitutes the nursery school curriculum through practices that enable the infants to carry out various activities, based on their own initiatives and without the direct supervision of an adult. At the same time, those practices provide protection and care for the children.