RAISING AWARENESS OF NATURE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: ENHANCING/FACILITATING FACTORS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MUNICIPAL EDUCATION NETWORK OF FLORIANÓPOLIS/SC

Abstract

This article presents part of the research conducted in Early Childhood Education within the Municipal Education Network of Florianópolis/SC (RMEF), whose main objective was to analyze how Nature has been implemented in guiding documents, Political Pedagogical Projects (PPPs), and pedagogical practices in the context of three Early Childhood Education Centers (NEIMs). It is an empirical-theoretical research, with a qualitative approach, in which the data were analyzed using Gadamer’s Hermeneutics (1999) and Ricouer’s Interpretive Theory (1976). Among the categories of analysis, the educational-pedagogical dimension and some of the facilitating/potentiating factors of sensitization with/in Nature in Early Childhood Education stand out: the curricular documentary structure guiding the pedagogical practices of the RMEF and the NEIMs; play as a structuring and shaping axis of educational-pedagogical practice; and Physical Education in the RMEF; the approaches to social and cultural relations – Education on Ethnic-Racial Relations (ERER) and awareness of/in Nature; the materials and material resources used in pedagogical practice; and the external physical spaces that are part of the Early Childhood Education Centers (NEIMs). By adopting/incorporating these potentiating/facilitating factors into practices in early childhood education contexts, it is possible – gradually and continuously – to sensitize the school community (teaching professionals, families, and children) to the formation of fundamental principles and values ​aimed at awareness and reconnection with/in Nature for current and future generations.