The teaching and learning of cursive letters: differences and similarities between the Brazilian and Portuguese contexts

• Grant number: 24/09283-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Curriculum
• Principal Investigator: Maria Iolanda Monteiro
• Grantee: Alice Jorge da Cruz
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This scientific initiation project aims to discuss the differences and similarities between the Brazilian context and the Portuguese context in relation to the teaching and learning of cursive in school education, investigating how the subject is approached in academic productions of both countries in terms of the space they grant, the direction they take and the meaning they attribute to this type of graphic layout. Once we are aware that, since colonization, the history of Brazil, and in turn its education, has been crossed and influenced by the practices of Portugal, being able to mention, among the marks left, the very introduction of the Portuguese language and the system of writing, we intend to analyze - without discarding the particularities of each territory and culture - whether there are similar points shared or whether there are differences regarding the treatment that the two nations dedicate to cursive in the pedagogical scenario. In this sense, we assume as a theoretical framework on writing the studies and conceptions of Emilia Ferreiro and Ana Teberosky, Lev Vygotsky, Magda Soares and Maria Iolanda Monteiro. The motivation for the topic came after a preliminary search for work developed in Brazil, which revealed a small number of publications focused on cursive, as well as, in those found, the recurrence of doubts and divergent opinions regarding the methodology, to the necessity and validity of their teaching and learning. especially in the face of new contemporary demands. We believe that the research can enrich the pedagogical dialogue between the two countries and, in addition, offer potential theoretical contributions to educators, strengthening their actions and giving new meanings to working with cursive in the classroom.