The myth of the absence of racial prejudice in Early Childhood Education in Brazil

O mito da ausência de preconceito racial na educação infantil no Brasil

Abstract

This paper addresses the racial prejudice in Early Childhood Education and is the result of a qualitative investigation in kindergarten schools of the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, in 2013. It was designed to investigate how African cultures are presented to 0-3 year old children aiming to instill the Art. 7^th, paragraph V, from the National Curricular Guidelines for Children’s Education (DCNEI in Brazil). According to this document, pedagogical proposals must be compromised with breaking several types of relations of domination, including ethnical and racial ones. Data collection was conducted with observations and conversation with managers and teachers working in kindergarten schools. The results showed that most teachers and managers do not know the DCNEI. These practitioners stated that racial issues do not occur in Early Childhood Education and justified that  0-3 year old children are small and do not note such differences. Practically, there are no didactic materials and images of black people in the spaces of the investigated schools. Finally, there is a need not only to give visibility to 0-3 year old children, but also to deconstruct the myth of the lack of racial prejudice, inasmuch as African histories and cultures may enter in times and spaces of the kindergarten schools.

Keywords:Early Childhood Education; National Curricular Guidelines for Children's Education; Racial prejudice