Representations on early childhood and education, from students starting and graduating from the early childhood teacher career at two training institutions (Montevideo and Paysandú, Uruguay)

Abstract

The research presented here explores the conceptions and representations of teaching career students regarding early childhood and education and care in this section of life. The study was carried out by a multidisciplinary and inter-institutional team, a researcher from the Faculty of Psychology at UdelaR, and two teachers from the Early Childhood Teacher program. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) has been gaining an increasingly relevant place on a global scale, a movement of which Uruguay is a part, particularly from public policies. We have been witnessing a period of expansion and consolidation of national programs, together with the discussion about their meaning, purposes, methodologies, and organization. It is within this framework that the creation of a specific Early Childhood Teacher (MPI) career is based on, implemented in 2014, and recovering previous experiences. Its recent implementation justifies being able to understand what are the main factors that affect training on their childhood conceptions. It was a qualitative research of an exploratory nature, carried out using the discussion group method. The research was conducted in two population groups in two cities in Uruguay, Montevideo (the capital) and Paysandú. We also sought to analyze similarities and differences in the conceptions of childhood between students who are beginning their degree and students who are at the end of it. Although the team is processing, analyzing, and discussing the results, preliminary changes in the conceptions of childhood, as a result of the training, are evident. In students starting their careers, conceptions of the guardianship paradigm predominate, and in graduating students, the comprehensive protection paradigm predominates. These differences are translated in the ways of defining ECCE and its practices.