Gender Relations and Early Childhood Education

We analyzed the conceptions of the teachers of a nursery school in the municipality of Mamanguape, PB, about gender relations in early childhood education. Aspects of the ethnographic approach in the field of education were used, as well as some instruments such as a questionnaire with open questions, a sociodemographic questionnaire and a diagnostic instrument in the interviews carried out with four teachers. The teachers revealed conservative conceptions, converging on a grammatical and heteronormative understanding of gender relations. Their views on the roles of men and women in society, the use of colors and a space that simulates a house suggest very heterogeneous didactic-pedagogical gender practices among them. The training of nursery school teachers is a historical problem, especially if we consider the lack of ongoing training based on gender relations. Therefore, nurseries and pre-schools end up contributing to the reproduction of cultural prejudices and stigmas, due to the lack of didactic-pedagogical work oriented towards gender relations in the educational environment.