NURSERY TEACHING: MODULATION OF ADULT PRESENCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BABIES AND YOUNG CHILDREN’S AUTONOMY

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss possibilities and limits of the construction of babies and young children’s autonomy in day care, from an institutional research that aims to understand teaching in the education of children from 0 to 3 years. The methodological bias is the research-training. In the dialogues produced in systematic meetings with teachers of babies and children from 1 to 2 years old in a university school, the theme of free movement, self-determination and the role of the teacher were recurrently presented. In this context, in the speeches, the oscillation between free movement signified as chaos or danger and the appreciation of the creative actions of babies and children was highlighted. Decentralized management, the modulation of less controlling actions by adults, and the observation as important to know how to do were some axes that emerged as the  discussions focus.