Abstract
This essay proposes an assessment of Early Childhood Education between 1995 and 2016, based on questions about the advances that occurred in the context of public policies in relation to issues concerning the theoretical field generically named “differences”, comprising racial, gender/sexuality, social and ethnic differences. From an analysis of Early Childhood Education policies in the aforementioned decades, the paper highlights the forces present in the State and in social movements. It questions the place of Early Childhood Education in public policies deriving from various forces for the expansion of children’s rights. Based on the articulation between the results of a diagnostic research on municipal public policies for Early Childhood Education and a documentary research focusing on national laws and documents dealing with Early Childhood Education since 1995, the essay addresses the new configuration of the themes related to promoting and amplifying human rights in Lula’s and Dilma’s presidencies, which were brought under the umbrella of national security during Temer’s presidency. It calls into question the investment made in this stage of education; it highlights how policies for Early Childhood Education have been replacing the direct service of daycare centers by the State with an outsourced service, especially with philanthropic institutions, which have been increasing their third sector offers. It calls into question the privatizing logic, which supports the Base Nacional Curricular Comum (National Common Core Curriculum), and concludes on the need for an Early Childhood Education that regards childhood as experience.
Keywords
Early Childhood Education; public policy; differences; curriculum; childhood