The child's meeting with the teaching book: representations of childhood

Abstract

Admission to Elementary School is a time of transition and it often allows the first contact of the child with a teaching book. Who does this child meet in the book? Which elements of constitution of child being are communicated? In this article, we intend to answer these questions through a qualitative descriptive research, which aims at describing and analyzing social representations of childhood in the pictures of the first part of Ápis Língua Portuguesa – 1º ano (2017). The study departs from the description of elements that constitute pictures for comprehension of social representations (MOSCOVICI, 1978) which are present there, discussing them, based on the concept of language as a constitutive part of the human being (VYGOTSKY, 1989, 2008), and on studies on childhood (STEARNS, 2006). When interacting with the teaching book, students have access not only to knowledge, but also to contact with identity representations. The initial images of the teaching book portrait different origins, as well as physical and individual characteristics of kids. But, diversity of ethnic groups and physical characteristics does not cover social and cultural diversity of Brazilian childhoods, and this does not contribute to student’s subjective constitution.