University and primary education encounter

history of teachers’ development in the subject of gender and sexuality

Abstract

This article presents the history of teachers' development in the first stages of Primary Education. This investigation’s guiding question was: what knowledge regarding the topic of gender and sexuality do teachers working with children in Early Childhood Education have? The purpose was to identify and analyze these professionals' training paths on this subject in 3 public institutions in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul. Descriptive research was carried out, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The documentary corpus was built up from data collected during activities developed in 3 institutions that took part in the Research Project called “Teaching Paths in Early Childhood Education: Research in Public Schools in Mato Grosso do Sul”. The results showed a significant absence of discussions on the topic in the initial and subsequent phases of these professionals' training, even though this subject appears in sporadic activities. However, it drew our attention the number of themes and issues that the teachers are interested in learning about and debating. We concluded that training in gender and sexuality is fundamental to the daily lives not only of the children, but also of the professionals of Early Childhood Education Institutions. It has been happening far below the necessary for the implementation of a good education, mainly taking into account the theme at hand.