Meanings of the concept of attention for children in relationships with professionals in a school in Santos in the post-pandemic context.

• Grant number: 23/09010-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: Eunice Nakamura
• Grantee: Ana Caroline Marinello
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brought important reflections about how people relate to each other, especially in the context of capitalist societies, in which attention becomes highly relevant because it is related to the idea of productivity. Children who don't meet the expectations related to the attention desired by adults are often put into medicalizing categories that transform their subjectivities into biological issues, in an attempt to justify their behaviors. The aim of the project is, therefore, to understand the meanings of attention from the relationship between children and professionals of a school in the Northwest Zone of the city of Santos-SP, having as specific objectives to identify which behaviors are classified as attention problems by the professionals, which aspects are related to these problems and if they are related or not to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. To this end, a qualitative research will be carried out, adopting the ethnographic method and prioritizing participant observation as a technique that enables the active observation and listening of students in a classroom context, following their routine and observing their behavior and speech, in their relationship with adults. It is considered that meanings are constituted by different social actors in particular contexts, therefore, understanding what children think about attention provides a space for reflection that enables the understanding of how they relate to adults and to their reality.