You Get to a Point Where You Get Tired”

Abstract

Early childhood institutions in Brazil used to be related to social care services, their main task being to care for and feed young children. In 1996 early childhood became part of the educational system and this required teachers to work more interactively with children. Thus early childhood education is recent in Brazilian legislation, and teachers still lack pedagogical competency to transform children’s learning experiences in early learning institutions. In this study, we use Critical Narrative Analysis (Souto-Manning, 2014) to examine how teachers’ collective dialogues increased their consciousness and agency to envision ways to refute historical discourses about the role of early childhood teachers. Findings indicate that while teachers remain rooted in traditional discourses, they are also seeking to make change.