Abstract:
The central object of this investigation is the reflection about the identity of
early childhood education teachers and the analysis of the possibilities and difficulties
of their ressignification, verifying their processes of training and education, of work
and of recognition of their social status. The goals of the research are to:
comprehend the identity formation process and the knowledge experiences of early
childhood education teachers and to investigate the possibility and difficulty of
ressignifying their identity and practice. To do this a historic base was obtained
through the study of the emergence of educational work with children (chap. 1) and a
legal base was obtained through the study of the pertinent legislation (chap. 2) so
that, finally, the identity formation process could be analyzed in more concrete and
current terms through field research. Thus, the methodological option for the
research project was a bibliographic approach for the historical and legal study, and
a qualitative-descriptive approach for the third chapter, where the participativeresearch
methodology was adopted using a process of interaction with early
childhood education teachers, based on the critical theory paradigm. The field
research analyzed a sampling of the thoughts of teachers who work in three early
childhood education schools, one from the municipal network, one from the religious
network and one from the private network of the city of Porto Alegre.
