A man in daycare as a teacher in early childhood education: Teacher yes, uncle no

Abstract

The considerations that I weave here are fruits of the records of my observations, during my first experience as a man, and my first year, as a teacher of 11 babies, (3 girls and 8 boys), whose ages ranged from 04 months to 07 months, when I received them in the nursery, at the beginning of the 2019 school year, in a daycare center,  of the Municipal Public Education Network, in the interior of São Paulo, in a city of approximately just over 200,000 inhabitants. Having said that and when experiencing teaching in early childhood education, in stage I, it is essential to point out that coexistence occurs with babies, subjects already constituted, who form a group for which we teachers are responsible, including for us men who when working in early childhood education, exercise professional activity in a universe almost exclusively, occupied by women. The prejudices and stigmas originating from ideas that see the teaching profession as if exclusively female are evident. Body care was an attribute of women; The proximity between a man dealing with the body of babies provokes conflicts, doubts, questions, stigmas, and prejudices. However, the choice to work with babies starts from the privileged space, not only assistentialist, but also of emotion and creation, whose challenges lead to the conquest of knowledge, learning and doing, aligned in the teaching activity, eminently relational, culminating with the achievements and participation of babies in relation to learning. Thus, teaching in early childhood, linked to an attentive and thorough look, results in the exchange of experiences that is consolidated in the will to continue.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/uniknowindevolp-004