Abstract

GOMES-FERREIRA, António; MOTA, Luis  and  VILHENA, Carla. Early Childhood Education in Portugal: Discourses, Projects and Practices (1834-1974). Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2021, n.82, pp.219-240.  Epub Apr 04, 2022. ISSN 0120-3916.  https://doi.org/10.17227/rce.num82-10812.

This paper is a summary of the paths in early childhood education in Portugal, during 1834 and the end of the Estado Novo, in April of 1974, proposing a comprehensive reading of the evolution of thinking and action on the care and education of children in early childhood. This text also focuses on the analysis of official discourse, thought and pedagogical debate, as well as its realization. The documentary corpus used in this article, consists of the legislative production and a collection of texts on early childhood education, compiled in the education and teaching press. Those sources allow us to analyze ideas, proposals, projects and initiatives that, either through the State or embodied by civil society, were marking the long period of construction of modernity in Portugal. The documentary body was subjected to the critical method and content analysis, that showed that the diffusion of ideas and the implementation of educational policies and institutions was slow and accompanied by difficulties. Slow process that was rooted in the material and symbolic conditions of portuguese society. To a large extent, an expression of the nationa locus, translated an appropriation of international theories and practices.

Keywords : Child; childhood; early childhood education; nursery school; educational policy.

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