A abordagem à linguagem escrita na etapa final da educação pré-escolarestudo de casos múltiplos na região do sotavento algarvio

Laburpena

After the development of two previous studies (Horta, 2006, 2010), the fact that permanently realizing it, in the course of our professional activity, that educators in the field, in the development of their educational practice, as regards the written language, not always harmonize with the formation (in this area) we convey to our students, made us think that we would have something to do. According Ríos (2014) there is no consensus among kindergarten teachers in the written language in kindergarten respect, both in terms of objectives to be achieved and skills to facilitate in children, as that practices develop. In really fact, on the importance of the "why", "what" and "how" writing in the context of preschool education. In Portugal, there are several regulatory and policy documents to support the education of pre-school teacher action, among which we highlight the Orientações Curriculares para a Educação Pré-Escolar (Ministério da Educação, 1997), the Circular n.º 17/DSDC/DEPEB/2007 and Metas de Aprendizagem (Ministério da Educação, 2010). These documents, in general, are only guides for the teacher in the conduct of practice and better management that, in its view, should do the curriculum, particularly in the approach that makes the written language in their day-to-day and no their states or conditions the pedagogical model to be adopted. Normative and guidance documents for the action of the educator, as mentioned above, in the case of Orientações Curriculares and Metas de Aprendizagem, is given greater emphasis to writing invented by children and alphabetic writing (performed by the educator), as an awareness to this type of language, not in pretense, this level of education, an introduction "formal and classical" education process and learning. In the present study, we want to add that our thinking competes in the sense that the most important thing is not the fact that educators develop their approach to practice the written language so that all children reach the same stage. We understand, as Mata (2008, p. 43), that the «great objective of preschool education should be to provide opportunities so that all may go exploring writing, playing with writing, reflecting on writing and its conventions, within a context, functional and therefore significant». From a methodological point of view, this research is part of a qualitative approach, an interpretative paradigm, the variant case study, focusing on planning processes, intervention and reflective analysis of the educators who perform functions in kindergartens located in Eastern Algarve and belonging to the public network of the Ministry of Education. For this purpose, sixty curriculum group projects were consulted, out of the universe of educators participating in the initial phase of the study. The definition of selection criteria has enabled us to choose eight educators who constituted the protagonists in the following stages of the investigation. Semi-structured interviews to eight protagonists were later conducted, sixteen direct observation sessions (two each) were conducted and further sixteen interviews were made, of a lesser extent, after each observation process. The study shows that the way in which the approach to written language in preschool education takes place is the result of a set of variables of diverse nature, such as, inter alia: the management curriculum developed, which depends directly on the educator and their evolution as a professional; the perspective that each protagonist has of the written language (a form of expression and communication); their attitude vis-à-vis early conceptions about the written language of children (an attitude of support and stimulation); the assurance offered to children so that they can feel confident about their knowledge and learning in the transition to the next educational level, making them believe that they are capable of achieving it. Finally, it should be noted that the participation of the educators who took part in the study led them to develop a process of shared reflection which encouraged some of them to adopt innovation strategies presented to children and, in particularly, in relation to the modes of promoting the approach to written language in preschool education, with a view to a critical improvement of their educational practice. Such an effect is regarded as an added value resulting from the investigative process itself, both for the protagonists and the author.