Ciências na Educação Infantil: uma análise da produção acadêmica a partir dos periódicos CAPES

Abstract

Children's relationship with Sciences precedes, extrapolates and exceeds school education and Sciences education. As a rule, they are eager to get to know the world and have a fascination with phenomenon, as well as a high curious, inventive, creative, active and protagonist capacity to experiment and experience multiple situations related to Sciences and Natural Sciences. Paradoxically, the gaps between what some have called “Sciences Teaching” and Child Education are perceptible. In this context, it is urgent to consider the imminent need to produce knowledge about Sciences in Child Education, regardless of the cut and epistemological affiliation that one has. However, there seems to be no correspondence between this need and the reality identified in products and publications available in Brazil. The concern with the bibliographic scarcity on Sciences in Child Education, at national and international levels, is the driving force of this research, driven by the initial hypothesis that the available bibliography could be elementary and little disseminated, reflected from the beginning of the research, in the small number of books found, the outdated publications and the low number of publications in journals. The investigative movement of this research seeks to reveal answers to its main question: what does the academic production that makes up the CAPES journals on Sciences in Child Education bring? In general, the research aimed to carry out a quantitative-qualitative survey of academic productions in CAPES journals, seeking to identify publications dealing with Sciences in Child Education, with a view to thematic analysis of their contents. The method as a way to achieve the objectives defined in this research is based on mixed approaches, which are interested in a pragmatic combination between quanti- qualitative approaches. Its main locus is the CAPES Periodicals Portal, as well as the portals of all periodicals that make up the investigative corpus. From an exploratory, descriptive and analytical procedural point of view, it privileges the analysis of the content (BARDIN, 1979) of the documents that constitute this documentary corpus. The text is organized into three parts: part 1, “Sciences and Child Education: initial reflections to think about approximations and distances between children, the Sciences, Natural Sciences and Child Education”, brings the theoretical foundation, arranged in two sections: “Sciences and Natural Sciences: a brief historical, epistemological and didactic incursion” and, “Child Education and its specificities”. Part II, “The path is made by walking, the search and findings are made when accessing: initial approaches to the CAPES Journal Portal” constitutes the methodological design and is structured in two sections: “Initial approaches to the Journal Portal CAPES” and “Methodological design of the research”. Part III, " Sciences in Child Education: thematic analysis of content in publications from the CAPES Periodicals Portal" brings partial considerations around the generated data and consists of a section: "Exploration, treatment and thematic analysis of texts", where we dedicate ourselves to the pre-analysis of the inventoried material and then to the treatment of the results, inference and interpretation of the generated data. In general, it is concluded that the number of publications dealing with Sciences in Child Education is incipient. This amount corresponds to approximately 0.076% of the total number of publications surveyed, confirming the hypothesis announced at the beginning of the work. This took place in a context where 74,880 articles were mapped, in 158 CAPES journals, among which, initially, 314 periodicals were identified, submitted to the analysis of their contents. From the analysis undertaken, we finally identified 57 publications in which subtle/implicit or explicit thematic approximations between Natural Sciences and Child Education and/or dealt with Sciences in Child Education were tracked, with contents that correspond and relate to the following categories analytics: Temporality, relationships and temporal markers; Authorship and formative dimension; Characterization and locus; Target Audience; Publication objectives; Announced syntheses; and, Concepts related to Natural Sciences, Child Education and Sciences Child Education. Recognizing that the results compiled here make up a relevant academic contribution, at the same time they refer to gaps to be investigated a posteriori. Thus, we call for the urgency of expanding our discussions around the theme and of strengthening relationships between Natural Sciences and Child Education. As in the universe of children, we are not short of questions because we are full of curiosity!