Socio-emotional development in basic education: reflections from the State of Knowledge

Historically, cognitive aspects of learning such as test performance and knowledge tests related to reading, writing and math have always been prominent in school curriculums. However, this view has been changing over the years. Since the launch of the Law of Directives and National Educational Bases in 1996 (BRAZIL, 1996), the need for basic education schools to act on the full formation of students has been stressed. With the homologation of the National Core Curriculum in 2017, the incentive towards socio-emotional development of students has become more evident. In face of this scenario, this article aims to understand how the field of studies on development and socio-emotional learning in Basic Education is presented in the literature produced in theses and disserta-tions in national graduate programs in recent years. The methodological approach adopted was exploratory qualitative nature, based on bibliographical research. The principles of the State of Knowledge were used to carry out a bibliographic survey in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, with the years 2015 to 2019 being delimited as a time frame. The descriptors "socio-emotional development", "socio-emotional competence" and "socio-emotional learning" were used. The corpus of analysis consisted of 16 works, 11 dissertations and 5 theses. The results indicate majority of studies have children and/or early childhood educators as their tar-get audience, therefore lacking investments in research aimed at the final years of elementary school and high school. In addition, the pedagogical strategies adopted by teachers to favor students' socio-emotional learning need to be aligned with the school curriculum to beco -me effective. In general, the studies highlight the need for the socio-emotional training of the teacher himself.