O direito à literatura na educação infantil: bibliotecas escolares para crianças de 0 a 6 anos no município de Guanhães

Abstract

This research aimed to understand and evaluate the material and pedagogical conditions of school libraries in Early Childhood Education institutions, serving children from zero to six years old, in the municipality of Guanhães-MG, Brazil. Considering access to literature as a right of all children, the study was carried out in eight Early Childhood Education institutions of the Municipal Education Network of Guanhães-MG, all located in the city center. The investigation was based on official documents of the Brazilian educational system and on the national guidelines that guide the operation of school libraries in Early Childhood Education, which served as a basis for the analysis of municipal educational guidelines. Both references guided the evaluation of the real conditions found in the researched institutions. In addition, the data analysis was supported by studies that discuss the theme of the school library, such as Leite (2004) and Bernadete Campello et al. (2012); researchers who examine the specificities of libraries for babies and young children, known as "bebetecas", such as Mercês Escardò i Bas (1994), Renata Souza and Juliane Motoyama (2016), Mônica Baptista et al. (2016), as well as authors who address the concept of childhood, such as Sarmento (1997), and the right to literature, such as Cândido (2011). The research is qualitative and is characterized as a case study. Data collection was carried out through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The findings of the study indicate that the Brazilian State has only recently recognized the relevance of school libraries for the holistic development of each Brazilian citizen, with Federal Law 12.244/2010, amended by Law 14.837/2024, being the legal framework that made the presence of libraries mandatory in all educational institutions in the country. It became evident that the bebetecas – libraries for babies and children under six years of age – are spaces intended to welcome young children and meet their specific needs during the social use of a library. However, the results showed that such spaces are rarely found in Early Childhood Education schools throughout the country and in Guanhães-MG. In this sense, following this research, a practical guide entitled Implementation of Municipal Libraries: A Guide for Managers Committed to the Training of Young Readers was elaborated, based on considerations about libraries for early childhood, with the objective of subsidizing new initiatives for the restructuring of libraries in Early Childhood Education Schools.