Concepções e práticas de professoras da Educação Infantil de um CMEI de Natal/RN em relação à sexualidade das crianças: reflexões sobre a formação docente

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyse the teachers‟ views in relation to child sexuality and their reactions towards situations that involve children displaying sexual behaviour in Preschool. The theoretical framework is based on studies made by Freud and Foucault about child sexuality and sexuality, respectively, as well as documents used as guides for education, preschool education and that are a reference for working with sexuality in the educational context. An investigation was made that comprised a stage of bibliographic research, which was carried out on the Capes Periodical Portal aiming to investigate works discussing preschool teachers practices regarding the display of sexual behaviour among children in the school setting, published between 2008 and 2018; an empirical research was also made involving fourteen teachers from a Municipal Preschool Educational Center (Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil) in Natal/RN, which was used as subject of the study and for qualitative analysis. The techniques used the in the empirical research constituted of rounds of discussion, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results show that the teacher‟s views in relation to child sexuality are majorly based upon moral, religious and personal values, as well as the preconceived idea that children shouldn‟t manifest any sexual behaviours. When the teachers come across such behaviours, the majority have the tendency to resort to threats and chastisement, dealing with the matter mainly on an individual basis and not including the whole class on a discussion. Furthermore, a relationship between teachers and parents to approach this subject is basically inexistent and the family environment is viewed as the last resource when dealing with situations that the school is not able to deal with. There was a consensus about the current lack of qualification to implement a pedagogical work with child sexuality and also about a lack of discussions regarding the subject in the institution itself. This last finding shows the need to reconsider the curriculums for teachers initial training courses and offers for further education, bringing to attention this subject of study that has relatively little visibility in the educational sphere. The conclusions point out that the pedagogical work with child sexuality in the school setting becomes even more relevant in view of the current environment in which we are living in Brazil, where we are witnessing a severe political setback concerning the implementation of non-sexist education and that respects the diversity in all its forms.