Educational television programs for Brazilian children: proposed planning criteria based on the analysis of Vila Sésamo and Rá Tim Bum

Author(s)

Adriana Maricato de Souza

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2001-12-12

Examining board members

Ângelo Pedro Piovesan Neto; Heloisa Dupas de Oliveira Penteado; Edmir Perrotti

• Advisor: Ângelo Pedro Piovesan Neto

Abstract

The history of two children programs of strong impact in Brazil, Vila Sésamo (TV Cultura-TV Globo/1972) and Rá Tim Bum (TV Cultura/1990), points out what the Brazilian educational production characteristics are. They show a structural conflict between the educational planning method of Northern American origin and the producers’ and target audience’s cultural background. Aimed at establishing the most adequate criteria for national educational programs, it is suggested that Paulo Freire’s perspective on Communication and Education by the Brazilian productions be incorporated. To Freire, the educational process starts from the learner’s cultural background and it stimulates him/her to transform his/her environment. At a democracy consolidation moment in Latin America, education through television is understood as symbolic and practical construction of citizenship, where producers and viewers dialogue and recognize themselves as agents in the same social process. Planning programs for educational purposes requires the creation of parameters departing from the country’s cultural production practice and from the target audience’s objective reality. This dissertation suggests basic criteria for making future educational products aimed at Brazilian children, which are opposed to the consumerism conditioned by imported programs mistaken as educational. (AU)