Os direitos da criança da educação infantil no marco legal brasileiro do final dos anos 1990 e início dos anos 2000

Abstract

This study is part of the Master’s Program in Education (PPGE/UFT) and investigated the following research question: What advances does the legal framework bring to early childhood education? In light of this issue, the general objective was to discuss the historical trajectory of the idea of childhood in national legislation. The specific objective was to investigate and analyze the advances of the legal framework for early childhood education. In the analyses, we drew on critical authors and scholars of childhood who regard the child as a subject of rights and childhood as a social category, and who understand early childhood education as a right and as the first stage of basic education, with characteristics that match its social, political, and pedagogical functions. Some of the theoretical references included: Vygotsky (1998), Manuel Sarmento (2005), Ana Lúcia Goulart de Faria and Daniela Finca (2011), Sandro Vinícius Sales dos Santos (2014), Damião Rocha (2019), Edneia Maria Azevedo Machado and Marta Regina Brostolin (2022), Laura Simone Marim Puerta (2022), Rosana Carla Gonçalves Gomes Cintra (2022), Andréia Paz Leonarski de Souza Lima and Ricardo Henrique de Souza (2022), among others. Grounded in qualitative research, we conducted a documentary analysis based on the 1988 Federal Constitution (CF/88), the 1996 National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (LDB/96), the National Curricular Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (RCNEI/98), and the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC/2017). Our findings indicate the effective recognition of children’s right to early childhood education as the first stage of basic education, from the LDB onwards, and a reflection on the implementation of these rights upon children’s entry into daycare and preschool, with an early childhood education curriculum defined by the RCNEI and recent changes introduced by the BNCC. The historical trajectory of the concept of childhood in Brazil is marked by the work of education researchers, research associations and institutions, and educational legislators through their legal frameworks. We observed that the learning and development rights established by the BNCC/2017 express the right to the various ways in which children learn and develop in educational settings, forming the basis for meaningful learning. Along this trajectory, changes have been taking place in the field of rights for infants, very young children, and young children, and the way in which the child is currently understood as a rights-holder is very recent in Brazil, as the consulted documents show. For this purpose, a mapping was carried out in the Northern Region of Brazil of research and postgraduate education programs that address children’s rights in early childhood education, considering the period from 2020 to 2025. For this survey, we used the CAPES and SUCUPIRA repositories as our main sources. The data reveal a small number of studies in the northern region of Brazil when the focus of research is on children’s rights in early childhood education.