Crescemos juntos: As interações entre pares na creche e no jardim de infância

Abstract

This study carried out in the context of the Supervised Teaching Practice of the Master's Degree in Pre-School Education of the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal had as main intentions to understand how children interact with each other, to understand the conceptions of the cooperative educators on the subject, as well as their strategies for promoting interactions,  starting from the starting question ''How can the educator enhance peer interactions in daycare and kindergarten?'. The study followed a methodology based on the qualitative approach and action recherach, and was carried out in the two internship contexts – daycare and kindergarten – at two different moments. Regarding the procedures for collecting and processing information, I resorted to participant observation, field notes, multimedia records, documental analysis, semi-structured interview with cooperative  educators and content analysis. The analysis of the collected material and the interventions performed, permit understand the importance of social interactions between peers and the influence they exert on the development and learning of children, as well as the important role of the childhood educator as managers of the curriculum and promo-tor of interactions.

Key concepts: Social Development; Interaction; Play; Childhood Educator; Curriculum Manager