Panorama da produção de conhecimento em Educação Infantil no Brasil: um estudo a partir dos grupos de pesquisa cadastrados no DGP/CNPq.

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of research groups related to Early Childhood Education registered in the Directory of Research Groups of the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development. The main objective was to provide an overview of the knowledge production in Early Childhood Education carried out in Brazil. This study is a survey because it used a large amount of numerical data to deduce the understanding of this social reality. Specific objectives included identifying the location and the type of institution to which the groups belong; historical evolution of studied themes; formation and scientific production of groups’ leaders; and other particularities. Concepts of the Sociology of Childhood and the history of Brazilian Early Childhood Education - which rose from a welfare practice to the right to education promoted by law for all Brazilian children - sustain the theoretical frameworks of this research. Primarily, the methodology consisted of characterizing the research groups associated with Early Childhood Education based on data from the Brazilian Directory of Research Groups' website. Afterward, we surveyed the academic trajectories and scientific production of the groups' leaders. For this, the study used the information available at the Lattes platform, which belongs to the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development. Categories for the groups' analysis covered: location and legal status of the institution of origin, date of creation, human resources, and research lines. As for the groups' leaders, we investigated gender, academic background, and their technical-academic productions. The results indicated the growth of the Early Childhood Education studies in Brazil, which today holds at least 413 teams of researchers. The Southeast and the Northeast regions of Brazil accommodate most of these groups, with national prominence for São Paulo State. Comparing a relation between numbers of research groups and graduate programs, teams from the Northeast and North regions of Brazil seem to be more enthusiastic about the area of Early Childhood Education. Public institutions hold 90% of the studied groups. Regarding the groups' leaders, 79% are women, 94% have a doctorate, and most graduated in Pedagogy (48%) and Psychology (15.2%). The current number of groups and the preparation and productivity of their leaders suggest that the contribution of Brazilian researchers to Early Childhood Education is significant. The findings of this research may help in reflections on the history and current reality of scientific production in Early Childhood Education in Brazil. Moreover, we expect that this panorama reinforces the importance of guaranteeing autonomous and democratic public institutions for developing the field.