Transition processes when babies begin attending daycare centers, in different countries / cultures: Brazil, Finland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA

• Grant number: 19/26228-4
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: August 01, 2020 - July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal researcher: Katia de Souza Amorim
• Grantee: Katia de Souza Amorim
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Elizabeth Jane White ; Helen Marwick ; Laura Herold ; Lúcia Maria Santos Tinós ; Maria Clotilde Therezinha Rossetti Ferreira ; Niina Annika Rutanen
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/14830-9 - Transition processes when babies begin attending daycare centers, in different countries/cultures: Brazil, Finland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, BP.TT

Abstract

With the increasing participation of women in the labor market, even babies are having their care and education shared with collective early childhood institutions. However, the participation of babies in these institutions is seen as controversial, given the traditional discourses and practices on early childhood care, which consider that it should be performed at home and directly by the mother. As such, when placing babies in day care institutions, often emerge processes full of anguish and guilt, which are associated with the perspective that there is a low knowhow about the education of babies in collective institutions. In this context, a striking process refers to the entry and frequency of the baby in the institution, in which both the child, their families and teachers are mobilized, in a tense day care-family relationship. To understand these transition processes, while considering different discourses, voices, cultures and social organizations, the objective is to accompany the various participants over a year, in six different countries (Brazil, USA, Scotland, Finland, Australia and New Zealand) through the triangulation of procedures (video recording, interviews, observation form and field notebooks). Empirical data refer to five focal children from each country (each from different early childhood education institution, within the same country), which are followed-up by case studies. The empirical material is worked on and analyzed in researches that are initially conducted by research students (IC and PG) and are later discussed collectively among the leading researchers of the diverse countries involved. The general goal is, on one hand, to work toward a theoretical contribution, through the construction of knowledge about the development and the (re) construction of the baby's relations in this context, processes intertwined with biological aspects (particularities related to the child's age), relational (family members, teachers and other children in the group in which the baby participates), contextual and cultural. On the other hand, the goal is to understand how socio-cultural babies occur, considering the different cultural aspects found in various countries involved, in order to contribute to the practices to the children, families, besides giving support to institution's teachers in this process. (AU)