What fits in the early childhood education curriculum? an invitation to reflection

Abstract

The curricular organization in early childhood education is a thorny and controversy issue, because the historical trajectory of early childhood education reveals the lack of clarity concerning its purpose. Ahead of this, the aim of this paper is to discuss the challenges of the curricular organization in early childhood education, reflecting about some official proposals that have already thrown light on the teaching work, and indicate ways to structure and organize a curriculum for that level of teaching. The discussion about this issue is needed, because this context of education, until recently, was not a priority, justified by its non-formal and non-school origin related to the small child care. Thus, in this current scenario, initially, we propose notes on some obstacles and possibilities to think the curriculum in the early childhood education, since it may ensure the specificity of the educational work. The official documents intended for early childhood education show disarticulation between objectives and contents, with implicit conception of child without defined goals for which direction this curricular organization aims to. We have moved on this discussion inferring that the curriculum organization needs to respond: for what, for whom, why, what and how to teach, showing that these issues determine the aims, purposes or educational intentions and constitute the starting point that justifies and gives meaning to the educational process. We emphasize that the task of elaborating and structuring a curriculum is challenging, and when it is assumed we will have possibilities to ensure the formation of complex and elaborated human achievements in the cultural development of small children.