O brincar e as relações de gênero e sexualidade na educação infantil

Abstract

The act of playing has meanings that are sewn and aligned to the historical and cultural constructions of gender and sexuality. Therefore, it is a cultural pedagogy the (re)produces and teaches boys and girls ways of being and acting since early childhood education. Thus, the general objective of this research seeks to understand children‟s conceptions of gender and sexuality based on the act of playing in the context of early childhood education. As for a better delimitation of the study, the general objective has been unfolded into the following specific objectives: identify the cultural meaning that children show in their playing and how gender and sexuality issues are present; analyze how gender and sexuality relations are woven in early childhood education regarding the act of playing; analyze how cultural pedagogies of gender and sexuality are implicated in the construction of children‟s identities through play. This research is located in the field of Gender and Sexuality Studies in interface with Cultural Studies of Education. Therefore, the study is organized in three thematic axes, anchored in several authors, as follows: Early Childhood Education and Childhood – Àries (1986), Del Priore (2018), Kuhlmann (1998), Didonet (2001), Demartini (2009; 2020), Kramer (2006), Rinaldi (2020); Playing and Culture – Kishimoto (2000; 2011), Brougère (2010; 2019), Wajskop (2012), Corsaro (2003; 2009; 2011), Giroux (1994; 2001; 2013), Steinberg, Kincheloe (2001); Gender and Sexuality – Scott (1995), Louro (1997; 2000; 2007; 2014; 2019), Weeks (1999), Felipe (2003; 2004; 2006), Meyer (2013), Finco (2003; 2007; 2010), among others. The research was chosen and its participants by the approved Ethics Committee were children from a kindergarten class. Concerning its methodological approach, this research is a qualitative study, by means of participant research. Participant observation and pedagogical workshops were used as instruments for data generation. For the systematization of the data generated, Aguiar & Ozella‟s Signification Nuclei (2006, 2013) were used. The results of this research constituted three signification nuclei, which indicate children‟s conceptions of gender and sexuality through playing, thus, showing that the toys and games in early childhood education present themselves as cultural pedagogies, by means of their multiple artifacts. It then corroborates the (re)production of sexist practices. However, the children have exposed mechanisms to transgress the socially standardized rules. Thus, the study points to the possibility of new ways of being and acting regarding gender and sexuality issues from the context of early childhood education.