TEACHING AND CHILDREN'S DRAWING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY

Abstract

This article, which is part of a master's research, aims to identify teachers' understanding of the role of children's drawing in early childhood education, given that this graphic language is very present in the daily life of early childhood schools. The understanding of drawing as a language is due to the theoretical contribution anchored in authors such as Vygotsky (2000a, 2000b 2001, 2007), Mukhina (1995), Derdyk (2010), Iavelberg (2010, 2013, 2017) and Vecchi (2017). Qualitative research was adopted, using the focus group technique with teachers working in a community early childhood education school in the city of São Luís-Ma, whose data was organized and analyzed using Bardin's Content Analysis (2016). It was found that the teachers see drawing predominantly as psychological, to the detriment of its pedagogical nature. They also see it as a driver of imagination and creativity, the development of which is linked to family experiences, without a closer look at their own school experiences. In this way, this research indicates the need for teachers to acquire theoretical and methodological knowledge about drawing, as well as diverse cultural knowledge in order to overcome a limited view of this visual language, whose multiple learning potentials (cognitive, expressive and creative) are not taken into account.