On the power and the art of word: text and life in working with children

Abstract

The author uses two issues as triggers for her considerations in this text: one about the conditions of participation of young children in the production of culture; the other about government policies regarding textbooks and early literacy texts. Remembering teaching and research experiences that involved teachers in training and children in the early stages of writing four decades ago, she shares aspects of her trajectory as she narrates the pedagogical work done with a first grade class which was based on children's literature. The conditions of school confinement and material restrictions at a time of political struggles and amnesty, 40 years ago, are analyzed against the conditions of social isolation and accelerated technological transformation, concomitant to the political and humanitarian setbacks we are currently experiencing in pandemic times. In the movement of historical transformations and in facing the continuous challenges, the power and the art of literary word are highlighted as a locus of elaboration and objectification of affections, feelings and thoughts, enhancing the creative activity of teachers and children in the context of formal schooling.