INTERACTIONS IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CURRICULUM: APPROACHES TO HISTORICAL-CULTURAL THEORY

Abstract

This article analyzes interactions as a structuring axis of the Early Childhood Education curriculum, in dialogue with the foundations of Cultural-Historical Theory. It starts from the following question: to what extent do the conceptions of interaction present in the National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (DCNEI) approach or diverge from the assumptions of this theory? The objective is to examine approximations and tensions between the curricular orientation expressed in the Guidelines and the cultural-historical understanding of social relations, mediation, and human development. This is theoretical-bibliographical research with a qualitative and interpretive approach, based on the DCNEI (Brasil, 2010), Vigotski (2001), Leontiev (1978), Luria (1992), Silva (2018), and Moreira and Candau (2007). The discussion indicates that the Guidelines recognize the child as a historical subject and give centrality to interactions and play, in line with important aspects of Cultural-Historical Theory. However, the normative scope of the document does not amount to making explicit the mediation mechanisms that take part in the formation of higher psychological functions. It is concluded that bringing these perspectives together helps to understand the curriculum as cultural production and to guide intentional pedagogical practices, without reducing interaction to spontaneous coexistence or anticipating school demands characteristic of other stages.