Jardins da terra: a importância da natureza na educação infantil e suas consequências pedagógicas e éticas

Abstract

The dissertation places at the center of the research two fundamental subjects for the future of humanity, who are normally treated as objects: nature and children. The two subjects are analyzed from a well-defined environment: the preschool. The investigation demonstrates, based on the main official documents of the Brazilian state, that national education bodies have never been concerned with thinking of children and nature as historical subjects that need interaction with each other, since early childhood education. Given this scenario, several arguments are presented indicating that the child's interaction with nature creates emotional bonds that benefit both subjects. The child gains pedagogically and can develop an ethic of care for nature. The preschool is the privileged space for the child to interact or not interact with the environment. The school, with its architectural and curricular design, can be a garden of the earth for the child and have a decisive impact on the learning processes and on children's construction of an ethic of care. The child's emotional ties with nature contribute to the development of an ecopedagogy and also to the ethics of care presented by Leonardo Boff. At the end of the dissertation, some proposals for lesson plans are presented that can help in the interaction of children, early childhood education, with nature, even in urbanized contexts.