Written language at an institution of Early Childhood Education: concepts and practices in interaction

In this article, we analyze the perception of teachers on practices of/with written language at two classrooms of a public institution dedicated to Early Childhood Education. The ideas of Vygotsky (2007) and Sepulveda and Teberosky (2011) were linked to studies of Abramovay and Kramer (1985), Kishimoto (2010), and Martins (1991) to found theoretically the research presented in this paper. The research, under a qualitative approach, counted on two teachers of Early Childhood Education classes to participate in sessions of observation with written and visual records, and in an experience of focus group. We found that written language was conceived as a knowledge with which children should interact and appropriate, recognizing, in this object/instrument of knowledge, specificities of teaching/promotion by teachers and learning/development by children, treated as a socially relevant knowledge. However, we did not identify significant situations in which written language was handled from a social literacy perspective.