Session Information
Session 7, Historical Perspectives on Educational Provision (Part 1)
Papers
Time:
2005-09-09
09:00-10:30
Room:
ENG
Chair:
Ulrike Mietzner
Contribution
The main objective of this study was to examine the discourses about the institutionalisation of preschool education in the Portuguese pedagogical press, between 1880 and 1950, taking into account that, on one hand, the concern with formal education of preschool children is closely related with the reconstruction of family, maternity and childhood concepts, and, on the other, the institutionalisation of preschool education is part of a wider movement concerning the institutionalisation of education in general. More, specifically, we have tried to identity the main purposes underlying the creation of preschool education, and the ways in which these institutions should organize themselves. Pedagogical press constitutes a important source for the History of Education and was chosen because (a) it makes possible to grasp the diversity that exist within the educational field; (b) it provides information and opinions elaborated not long after the events have occurred; and (c) it is a forum for alternative voices that don't have access to other media (Nóvoa et al., 1997). The sample of 14 pedagogical journals used in this study was taken from "Repertório Analítico da Imprensa de Educação e Ensino" (Nóvoa, 1993) in which are described the main pedagogical journals published in Portugal between 1818 e 1989. Subsequently, we selected purposively 108 articles about preschool education. These articles were analysed using content analysis. A coding framework was developed inductively following the analysis of the articles content and applied to the entire text corpus. The analysis was done on the basis of two main themes: purposes (objectives of preschool education) and organization (organization strategies of preschool education), which were divided in 12 and 11 categories, respectively. The data obtained were subsequently analysed using quantitative (occurrence and structural analysis) and qualitative (vertical and horizontal comparison of the record units included in each category) procedures. The present study revealed that there were two main purposes - distinct but closely associated - underlying the creation of preschool education institutions: (i) social purposes, centred on the family and society, like allow mothers to work and keep children out of the streets; and (b) educational purposes, centred on the children, like the promotion of overall child development. The predominance of a certain type of purpose determines the way in which the institutions organize themselves: on one hand, there are the educational institutions, aimed at children of the upper classes, where the educational objectives are prevalent, such as methods and curriculum, and, on the other hand, the welfare institutions, aimed at children from the working classes, where the social purposes are favoured, such as hygiene and medical inspection of the children. References:Nóvoa, A. (Ed.) (1993). Imprensa de educação e ensino, repertório analítico (séculos XIX-XX). Lisboa: Instituto de Inovação Educacional.Nóvoa, A. et al. (1997). A imprensa de educação e ensino: Concepção e organização do repertório português. In D. B. Catani & M. H. Bastos (Eds.), A educação em revista: A imprensa periódica e a história da educação (pp. 11 - 31). São Paulo: Escrituras.
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