Educação infantil e a construção de valores morais: dialogando com gestores e docentes de uma pré-escola municipal

Abstract

This dissertation was developed in the Postgraduate Program in Education, Master's, at the University of Oeste Paulista, Education concentration area, Research Line “Training and action of professional teaching and educational practices”. Early Childhood Education is the first stage of School Education, which aims at the integral development of children up to five years of age, in the physical, psychological, intellectual and social aspects. From this perspective, preschool becomes an important factor in promoting development, allowing the student to build values, as it is at this time that the first initiatives that favor the principles for social interaction are fostered. Thus, the general objective of this research was to investigate the work developed with moral values for the construction of moral autonomy in preschool, having as specific objectives: to analyze the legal documents at the National level: Pedagogical Political Project (PPP) and Teaching Plans; verify the conception of the school team regarding the construction of moral values and the development of moral autonomy and analyze the work developed at the school through the declared practice of teachers in relation to the development of moral values. The present research, based on authors of the Psychology of Morality, from the perspective of cognitive-evolutionary theory, was developed from the perspective of a qualitative approach with explanatory descriptive design, having as participants the Director, the Pedagogical Advisor and teachers of a municipal preschool from the interior of the State of São Paulo. As methodological procedures, we used documents that cover this stage of Education, semi-structured interviews and, for the analysis and interpretation of data, we resorted to Discursive Textual Analysis. The results indicate that the analyzed documents do not specifically contemplate work with moral values, but in general they present guidelines with educational practices for the exercise of citizenship. The interviewed professionals understand what moral values are, in a common sense perception within society, they are also aware that work in this context is essential for good interpersonal relationships, as well as understand the importance of working with moral values for the child's development in Early Childhood Education. However, they do not develop this work in a specific project and with exchanges between the school team, but something built daily with the students in general themes developed in the Teaching Plans, inside the classroom and in external spaces in the daily school life. Another point to be highlighted is that, according to the teachers, play is essential to work on moral values, because through it the children learn the notions of values and moral autonomy, respecting the colleague who is in the queue for toy, collaborating with the rules built together at the time of playing, dividing the toys, etc. in this sense, play is one of the main tools in the development of moral values, as it is capable of strengthening the principles of respect, limits and coexistence among peers, thus favoring the construction of moral autonomy for living in society and the development of more democratic relationships. We hope, with this study, to provide subsidies for the discussion and understanding of the importance of building moral values from early childhood education, for the development of moral autonomy and the construction of a fairer and more democratic society.