Evaluation experiences, both internal and external to the school setting, have played a central role in the implementation of pedagogical practices and formulation of public policies. In Brazil, the discussion about evaluation in the context of Early Childhood Education has been at the center of political and academic debates for at least the last three decades. More recently, however, the debate over this issue has intensified. Thus, while evaluation now figures prominently in the field of macro-policies, it still seems to receive little attention in daily pedagogical practice. Given the challenge of thinking about evaluation in the context of Early Childhood Education and the gaps in studies on the subject, this article seeks to understand evaluation in daily pedagogical practice. It is important to note that evaluation processes in the field of education are not exclusively constrained to pedagogical documentation or the use of formal tools such as tests. One of the most common strategies has to do with the instructions, comments, and narratives verbalized by teachers on a daily basis. Such communication is usually guided by a moral dimension reflecting social constructions and representations around various issues. This study analyzes gender-stereotyped constructions involving idealized concepts of child, woman, and family that are shared on a daily basis within the social relations and interactions between teachers and children. It is observed that such stereotypes are verbalized and expressed in multiple ways to the children who, from a very early age, seek to emphasize valued traits and behaviors in their actions, as well as hide what may be considered deviant behavior. In this sense, although it is more evident in some instances and under certain perspectives, the moral dimension of the evaluation seems to be part of the whole process. There is judgment about supposedly inadequate treatment received by children in their families, with criticism mainly directed at the mothers. Thus, projections about the future of children who grow up in families that are considered inadequate include criminal behavior, failure, etc. When teachers themselves face difficulties in dealing with a child who fails to learn and does not present a learning disability or other learning problem, justifications usually invoke family problems or the absence of mothers. In general, the common understanding is that mothers are primarily responsible for children's education and fathers only play a secondary role. Based on Goffman (1967; 1986), from the point of view of institutions, it can be said that a moral dimension is developed in daily life and in the context of institutional interactions. As a result, moral codes more in line with the formal perspective of the institution are constructed, reconstructed and shared. These codes imply models of woman- and motherhood that are daily confronted with socially constructed and shared standards, expressing the conditions that need to be met in order to match prevailing models as closely as possible.

For the design of the qualitative study, multidisciplinary references were used to establish a dialogue between the fields of Education and the Social Sciences, more specifically, the sociology of everyday life based on Goffman's microsociological approach. The study of everyday life demands a look at the microstructural aspects arising in social relations. For Goffman (1967; 1986), everyday life is defined as the stage where interactions and representations of different social roles are established. Accordingly, based mainly on interactions observed in the daily routine of pedagogical work carried out in two classes (one at daycare and the other at preschool), formal and informal elements that could contribute to children's evaluative processes were mapped. By establishing as its focus the micro-evaluations arising in relational dynamics–that is, in the interactions between teachers and children–not only the interactions themselves, but also teachers’ narratives derived from these relationships, gained prominent place in this work. For this purpose, an immersion period was carried out based on research that seeks to understand relationships intrinsic to the most different social or cultural groups in varied contexts, such as the studies of Corsaro, 2011; Hardman, 2001; Mead, 2014; Levine, 2007; Rogoff, 2003. In addition to the observations and informal talks with teachers that were recorded in a field diary, film footage of interaction episodes was conducted along with interviews. The use of different research tools enables screening of the data (FLICK, 2020) and is an indispensable condition for conducting a qualitative study given the complex nature of the field and diversity of its participants, which may warrant the use of interviews and observations as well as the inspection of documents and other artifacts (YIN, 2014). Therefore, both film footage and audio reports played a crucial role in this research, allowing to aggregate information more accurately and to generate invaluable data that would have been impossible to capture from the handwritten record alone.

This research suggests that the evaluation of children in Early Childhood Education is essentially informal, marked by constructions and representations involving concepts of the ideal children and family. These notions are verbalized and expressed in different ways to the children, who, from a very early age, seek to emphasize valued traits and behaviors in their actions, as well as hide what may be considered deviant behavior. In the children's evaluation, ideas of stigma, failure, and a moral dimension are implied, which are revealed in the practices and narratives of teachers and expressed in daily pedagogical settings. Within the moral category, gender-related concepts are prominent. In different situations, a kind of moral judgment (Goffman, 1967; 1986) by teachers about children and their families was observed. This moral dimension emerges in elaborations about teachers' understanding of the fragile affective bonds between children who spend a lot of time at the institution and their families; in notions of deviation of moral conduct by the families or in judgments about inadequate treatment received by children in the family. In these situations, criticism is mainly directed at the mothers and informs socially constructed models of woman- and motherhood (Ärlemalm‐Hagsér, 2010; Chick, Heilman‐Houser & Hunter, 2002; Banse, Gawronski, Rebetez, Gutt, & Bruce Morton, 2010) . Teacher Verbalizations made by teachers endorse some models and invalidate others, contributing to the formation of children's identities. Through teachers' comments, on a daily basis, conditions that need to be met in order to match prevailing models as closely as possible are communicated to the children. Based on an ideal model of family and parental role, gender divisions are shared, which in general overburden mothers and perpetuate inequities arising in the complex relationships between workers and families of the Early Childhood Education.

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